Print

Mail

wiki links

Business Briefs

Shares dip on export concerns

Share prices closed sharply lower yesterday as selling pressure intensified in technology firms amid worries that the NT dollar's rise could hurt export earnings, dealers said.

The weighted index closed down 162.07 points, or 1.85 percent, at 8,605.95, after moving between 8,559.10 and 8,708.92, on turnover of NT$160.83 billion (US$5.34 billion).

Decliners led risers 1,597 to 571, with 281 stocks unchanged. A total of 30 stocks closed limit-up and 17 limit-down.

Tu Jin-lung (杜金龍), chairman of Grand Cathay Investment Services Corp (大華投顧), said investors were waiting for first-quarter corporate results to gauge the impact of the local currency's recent appreciation.

He said that the plunge in overseas bourses also convinced investors to continue to lock in profits from the market's earlier election-related rally.

AUO venture buys color filter fab

AU Optronics Corp (友達光電), the nation's largest manufacturer of liquid-crystal-display (LCD) panels, said yesterday its color filter joint venture with Japan's Toppan Printing Co has bought a fifth-generation color filter plant from debt-ridden Allied Material Technology Corp (展茂光電) for NT$3.4 billion (US$113 million).

AUO holds a 49 percent share of the joint venture, Toppan CFI (台灣凸版國際採光).

The board of Toppan CFI approved the deal yesterday, AUO said in a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange.

The plant is in Tainan, where major LCD panel makers have set up next-generation plants.

Hynix to cut investment target

Hynix Semiconductor Inc, the world's second-largest maker of computer memory chips by revenue, will cut its investment plan this year by more than a quarter, a media report said yesterday.

Hynix will slash 1 trillion won (US$1 billion) from its original investment plan of 3.6 trillion won, an unidentified company spokesman told Dow Jones Newswires.

He attributed the cut to low prices for DRAM and NAND flash memory chips.

Mitsubishi retires shares

Mitsubishi Motors Corp, which received two bailouts in 2004 and 2005, retired 5,000 preferred shares it purchased from Taiwan's China Motor Corp (中華汽車).

The company purchased the shares in November after a request from China Motor to exchange them for common shares, Tokyo-based Mitsubishi Motors said in a release yesterday.

Sharp to build solar cell plant

Japan's Sharp Corp said yesterday it was investing ?72 billion (US$727 million) in a new solar cell plant to meet fast growing demand for environmentally friendly power generation systems.

Sharp first announced last year a plan to construct the world's largest solar cell plant in the city of Sakai but did not disclose its investment at the time. The plant is expected to start operating in March 2010, it said yesterday.

Top Fujitsu officials resigning

Japanese computer maker Fujitsu Ltd announced yesterday that president Hiroaki Kurokawa and chairman Naoyuki Akikusa will both step down sometime after June.

Kurokawa, who took up the post in June 2003, will be replaced as president by Kuniaki Nozoe, currently a senior vice president, a company statement said.

Akikusa will be replaced by Michiyoshi Mazuka, a senior executive vice president.

Fujitsu slumped to a net loss of ?9.34 billion (US$94 million) in the first half of the fiscal year ending March, hit by declines in hard disc drive and semiconductor chip prices.
This story has been viewed 851 times.