Shares flatten over fears
Shares closed flat yesterday as persistent worries over the fallout of US subprime loan problems led the market to give up early technical gains, dealers said.
They noted an uncertain mood in global markets as investors worry about the possibility of more financial institutions getting caught up in US bad loan problems and a tightening credit environment despite efforts of central banks to inject liquidity.
The TAIEX closed up 7.65 points, or 0.09 percent, at 8,938.96 on turnover of NT$145.49 billion (US$4.41 billion).
Tank Hung, a manager with Mega International Investment Services (兆豐國際投顧), said there was also a "technical resistance level of around 9,050 points on the index, an average level that investors had built portfolios over the past three weeks in the domestic market."
Hung expects consolidation in a narrow band for the local bourse going forward, with a technical support level seen at around 8,700 to 8,800 points.
Charter flights for Okinawa, Cebu
Mandarin Airlines (華信航空) yesterday said it will launch charter flights to Okinawa in Japan and Cebu in the Philippines between next month and October.
Mandarin Airlines, a wholly owned unit of Taipei-based China Airlines Ltd (中華航空), will provide Kaohsiung-Okinawa charter flights every four days between Sept. 14 and Oct. 29 and two Kaohsiung-Cebu flights a week between Sept. 16 and Sept. 25, a spokesman said.
"The charter flights are to meet rising demand from the tourism industry," the spokesman said.
Greenspan joins Deutsche Bank
Deutsche Bank yesterday said it had hired former US Federal Reserve Board chairman Alan Greenspan as a senior adviser.
Germany's biggest bank said Greenspan, who left the US central bank in January last year, would offer insights on the "current and future developments in world financial markets" to staff and clients of its investment banking division.
Deutsche Bank chairman Josef Ackermann said Greenspan would bring "profound knowledge" to the job. The bank did not comment on Greenspan's salary.
Greenspan, 81, has been a popular figure on the international lecture circuit since handing over the Fed's reins to Ben Bernanke.
He also operates his own financial consultancy and has drawn a reported US$8.5 million as an advance for his memoirs.
Bonds enjoy rise
Bonds rose on speculation that investors will shift funds to the relative safety of government debt on concerns that losses related to US subprime mortgages will spread.
The yield on the benchmark bond due March 2017 fell 13.1 basis points to 2.402 percent in Taipei, according to the GRETAI Securities Market. The price rose 1.075, or NT$1,075 per NT$100,000 face amount, to 95.5286.
The New Taiwan dollar was unchanged at NT$32.965 against its US counterpart on turnover of US$668 million on the Taipei Forex Inc.
Arcelor Mittal still in talks
Arcelor Mittal, the world's biggest steelmaker, said talks are continuing with the Chinese government over its purchase of a stake in Laiwu Steel Corp (萊蕪鋼鐵).
The China Securities Journal said yesterday that Arcelor Mittal may cut the size of the stake it will buy in Laiwu by 0.5 percentage points and pay more than the 5.888 yuan (US$0.77) a share set under the initial agreement to win approval from Chinese regulators. The newspaper didn't say where it obtained the information.
Arcelor Mittal spokesman Jean Lasar declined to comment.
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GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that revenue would rise moderately in the second half of this year, driven primarily by robust demand for advanced wafers used in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “The first quarter is the lowest point of this cycle. The second half will be better than the first for the whole semiconductor industry and for GlobalWafers,” chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said during an online investors’ conference. “HBM would definitely be the key growth driver in the second half,” Hsu said. “That is our big hope
The consumer price index (CPI) last month eased to 1.95 percent, below the central bank’s 2 percent target, as food and entertainment cost increases decelerated, helped by stable egg prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. The slowdown bucked predictions by policymakers and academics that inflationary pressures would build up following double-digit electricity rate hikes on April 1. “The latest CPI data came after the cost of eating out and rent grew moderately amid mixed international raw material prices,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) told a news conference in Taipei. The central bank in March raised interest rates by