Share prices close lower
Taiwanese share prices closed 1.79 percent lower yesterday, but off the session's lows, after steep falls on Wall Street and amid renewed concerns over the US subprime loans crisis, dealers said.
The TAIEX closed down 152.57 points at 8,375.76, on turnover of NT$115.92 billion (US3.59 billion).
Decliners outnumbered advancers 1,806 to 348, with 271 stocks unchanged.
Dealers said selling pressure on the local bourse was heightened by some activity related to the settlement tomorrow of Taiwan index futures traded in Singapore.
But integrated circuits design houses and a few other stocks attracted bargain-hunting interest towards the close, helping the market come off the day's lows.
On the foreign exchange market, the NT dollar was unchanged at NT$32.320 against its US counterpart.
Turnover was US$884 million on the Taipei Forex Inc.
Power Digital sues Sony
Sony Corp has been sued in Taiwan on allegations it infringed patents of Power Digital Card Co (積智日通卡) and faces a suit in Tokyo, the Taipei-based company said.
Power Digital, a designer and maker of portable storage devices, alleges Sony's Micro Vault Tiny storage drive infringes on its designs and patents and is seeking unspecified damages.
Gen Shueh, special assistant to the chairman at Power Digital, said yesterday. The privately held company will file a suit in Japan "soon," he said.
Sony, maker of Cybershot digital cameras and PlayStation game consoles, asked Power Digital to design a flash-memory chip storage device, Shueh said.
Sony in 2004 decided not to buy the design and later began selling the Micro Vault Tiny, which is a copy, he said.
"We have no comment about anything regarding this case, including whether we had any dealings with them," Atsuo Omagari, a Sony spokesman, said by telephone from Tokyo.
Report boosts Chang Hwa
Chang Hwa Commercial Bank (彰化銀行) had its biggest two-day gain in a month in Taipei trading after a newspaper said that the value of the bank's assets would increase by more than NT$20 billion (US$619 million) following revaluation.
Chang Hwa has completed a revaluation and will increase net asset value more than NT$3.22 per share, the Economic Daily News reported yesterday.
It did not cite anyone nor give the asset value of the bank before revaluation.
"The revaluation process is confidential, and I don't even know the revalued figure," James Shih (施建安), a vice president of Chang Hwa, said yesterday.
The bank had hired Goldman Sachs Group Inc to revalue its assets as part of due diligence for a planned merger with Taishin Financial Holdings Co (台新金控).
McDonald's fires Japan firm
McDonald's Japan acknowledged yesterday that several of its franchise restaurants intentionally mislabeled the production date of salads to extend their shelf life, exacerbating food safety worries in Japan.
The company will cancel its franchise agreement with Athlete Co, a Japanese firm that admitted to the mislabeling at at least two of the four McDonald's outlets that it runs in central Tokyo, according to Shotaro Shimizu, a McDonald's spokesman.
McDonald's, which will run the four outlets directly from now on, denied the mislabeling had endangered customer health, and said there had been no reports of illness.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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