TAIEX rises as oil prices fall
Taiwanese shares closed up 1.62 percent yesterday after a Wall Street surge and a fall in oil prices, dealers said.
The electronics sector continued its strength on hopes that a weaker New Taiwan dollar will boost competitiveness, they said.
The weighted index rose 116.58 points to 7,325.62, off a low of 7,278.90 and a high of 7,357.69, on turnover of NT$135.38 billion (US$4.34 billion).
Mega Securities (兆豐國際投顧) analyst Alex Huang (黃國偉) said the expanded trading volume showed more and more investors were trying to take advantage of share prices after recent heavy losses.
“The market has also become technologically healthier. It is very possible that the upside will continue in the near term,” he said.
Hon Hai surges on sales report
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), the world’s largest contract electronics manufacturer, rose to a two-month high in Taipei trading, leading affiliated companies, after posting its highest monthly sales this year.
Hon Hai surged the 6.8 percent daily limit to close at NT$174 on the Taiwan Stock Exchange, extending its gain to four days and 18 percent. Affiliates Innolux Display Corp (群創光電) and Foxconn Technology Co (富士康) also rose. The island’s benchmark TAIEX index gained 1.6 percent.
Taipei-based Hon Hai said after the market closed on Friday that last month’s sales rose 35 percent to NT$130 billion (US$4.2 billion), the highest since December.
Thai-based firms eye GRETAI
Nine Thailand-based Taiwanese companies yesterday expressed interest in listing on Taiwan’s GRETAI Securities Market or issuing Taiwan Depository Receipts (TDR) soon, market president Wu Yui-chun (吳裕群) said yesterday.
The companies include First Rubber Co (第一橡膠), Sunshine International Co (泰揚國際), Applied DB Industrial and two other companies, which plan to become a GRETAI-traded company in the first half of next year, Wu said.
These five companies have signed letters of intent with KGI Securities Corp (中信證券) to realize their listing plans.
The remaining four of the nine companies are already publicly traded in Thailand, but plan to raise funds here via the issuance of TDR, Wu said.
EVA to suspend Auckland flights
EVA Air (長榮航空), one of Taiwan’s leading international carriers, said yesterday it would suspend flights to Auckland from Sept. 1.
“The Taipei-Auckland route is incurring losses on lower-than-expected demand. Worse, high oil prices have further impacted on our bottom line,” an EVA Air spokeswoman said.
While she did not detail the financial data for the route, EVA Air posted a net loss of NT$2.29 billion (US$73.4 million) in the three months to March, after slumping US$1.87 billion into the red last year.
China Eastern to sell stake
China Eastern Airlines (東航) said its agreement to sell a strategic stake to Singapore Airlines and Temasek Holdings had expired and cannot be completed, although the carrier is still looking for strategic investors.
The Shanghai-based airline agreed last year to sell a 24 percent stake to Singapore Airlines and Temasek Holdings, the Singapore government’s investment arm.
The deadline for a final agreement was Saturday and since the conditions for the deal were not met it automatically ended, it said in an announcement to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Sunday.
But the airline said it “will persist in the direction of introducing strategic investors ... to enhance the company’s international competitiveness.”
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