UMC sales rise 3.78 percent
United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) said yesterday its sales rose 3.78 percent last month to NT$10.43 billion (US$316 million) from NT$10.05 billion in July.
Last month's sales were up 10.8 percent year-on-year, the world's second largest contract microchip manufacturer said.
It said sales for the first eight months of the year amounted to NT$68.61 billion, down 0.21 percent from the year-earlier period, UMC said.
Sales for the second quarter totaled NT$25.10 billion, up from NT$23.03 billion in the preceding quarter but down from NT$25.75 billion a year earlier.
TAIFEX inks MOU abroad
The Taiwan Futures Exchange (TAIFEX) signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on cooperation with the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) on Thursday in Montreux, Switzerland, a TAIFEX official announced yesterday.
The memorandum, inked by TAIFEX chairman Yeh Ching-cheng (葉景成) and CBOE chairman William Brodsky, marked a further step in TAIFEX's strategic cooperation with its foreign counterparts and the nation's futures market internationalization.
Noting that CBOE is one of the world's largest options exchanges, Yeh said its successful experience in business expansion is worthy of being assimilated by TAIFEX in developing new products. He predicted that the memorandum would bring fruitful cooperation results for the two exchanges.
Central bank auctions CDs
The nation's central bank yesterday auctioned off NT$100 billion in certificates of deposit (CD) that drew a total bidding of NT$346.3 billion, the bank said in a statement posted on its Web site.
The auction ratio was 28.88 percent and the weighted average interest rate was 2.463 percent for the securities sold yesterday, the statement said.
Also yesterday, the central bank sold NT$50.1 billion 30-day CDs and negotiable CDs at a fixed rate of 1.92 percent, and offered NT$30 billion 91-day CDs and negotiable certificates of deposit at 1.99 percent, the bank said in another statement.
The central bank said a total of NT$231.8 billion in CDs had matured between Friday last week and yesterday, which it has replaced with NT$234.8 billion in new short-term debt in order to drain excess funds from the nation's money market.
Shares little changed
Shares closed little changed yesterday after early gains fueled by Wall Street's rise on optimism for an interest rate cut were offset by regional weakness, dealers said.
The TAIEX closed up 1.0 point or 0.01 percent at 9,018.08, on turnover of NT$135.18 billion (US$4.10 billion).
For the week to yesterday, the weighted index closed up 35.92 points or 0.4 percent following a 3.36 percent increase one week earlier.
The market largely ignored Chinese President Hu Jintao's (胡錦濤) warning that Taiwan's plan to hold a referendum on UN membership had propelled the region into a "possibly dangerous period."
But sentiment in late trade was dampened by China's sluggish showing after the People's Bank of China said it would raise the commercial bank reserve requirement ratio by 0.5 percentage points.
On the foreign exchange market, the New Taiwan dollar weakened NT$0.009 to close at NT$32.05 against its US counterpart.
Turnover was US$529 million, down from US$665 million the previous day, according to Taipei Forex Inc.
RSS