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Taiex drops on profit-taking

Shares closed 0.65 percent lower yesterday because of profit-taking, with a lackluster Wall Street and uncertainty about US corporate earnings prompting caution, dealers said.

The weighted index closed down 56.94 points at the day’s low of 8,672.85, after hitting a high of 8,725.69. Turnover was NT$133.48 billion (US$4.38 billion).

Decliners outnumbered advancers 1,478 to 698, while 320 stocks were unchanged. A total of 13 stocks closed limit-up, while 17 were limit-down.

Samson Chueh (闕山雄), an assistant vice president at Yuanta Core Pacific Capital Management Co (元大投顧), said investors turned cautious amid mostly weak overseas markets and concerns over corporate earnings at home and in the US.

Hon Hai mulls software unit

Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), the world’s largest contract electronics manufacturer, said it is considering setting up a software unit in Taiwan.

Hon Hai plans to establish a software center in Kaohsiung, a report in the Chinese-language Commercial Times daily said yesterday, citing chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘).

“It is under discussion,” Edmund Ding (丁祈安), spokesman for Taipei-based Hon Hai, said by phone. “Right now we have software development, but it’s part of our manufacturing.”

The company had been considering the plan to form a separate electronics software-development unit for a long time, Ding said. He declined to give a timeline on when a decision would be made.

Chinatrust announces losses

Chinatrust Financial Holding Co (中信金控), the country’s fourth-largest financial-services firm, said it incurred an investment loss of US$8.04 million on its holdings of structured investment vehicles (SIVs) last month.

Chinatrust, based in Taipei, has recognized losses totaling US$45 million from SIVs including last month’s writedown through its wholly-owned banking unit Chinatrust Commercial Bank (中國信託商銀), it said yesterday.

UMC shows big profits

United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) said yesterday that its sales last month rose 16.6 percent month-on-month to NT$8.50 billion.

Figures also showed a 12.57 percent increase year-on-year, the world’s second-largest wafer foundry said.

Parent sales in the first three months amounted to NT$24 billion, up 4.25 percent from last year, it said.

On a sequential basis, first-quarter sales fell 13.11 percent from NT$27.62 billion in the fourth quarter of last year.

UMC has said at a Jan. 30 investor conference that its wafer shipments in the first quarter to last month were expected to fall 14 percent to 15 percent from the previous quarter.

The first-quarter average selling price in US dollar terms is seen as rising by up to 1 percent from the preceding three months, it said.

NT dollar follows stocks down

The New Taiwan dollar fell the most this month as foreign investors sold the nation’s stocks on concern that a slowing global economy will curb exports.

The NT dollar declined 0.35 percent to NT$30.524 at the close of trade, according to Taipei Forex Inc.

Overseas investors have sold a net US$13.35 billion of the local shares the past two trading days, data from the stock exchange showed.

“Investors came back to reality because of the uncertainty of the global economic outlook,” said David Cohen, director of Asian economic forecasting at consulting firm Action Economics.


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