Share prices close lower
Share prices closed 0.61 percent lower yesterday, tracking an overnight fall on Wall Street, dealers said.
The weighted index fell 26.72 points to 4,363.25 on turnover worth NT$55.55 billion (US$1.68 billion).
Losers outnumbered gainers 987 to 537, while 225 shares remained unchanged.
“The market’s performance is better than my expectation given the losses in the US stocks,” said Mega International Investment Service (兆豐國際投顧) trader Stanley Chou.
Taipei shares are likely to test the three-month moving average at 4,500 points today providing there are no heavy losses on Wall Street overnight, Chou said.
Forex reserves at record high
The nation’s foreign exchange reserves climbed to a record high last month with the central bank attributing the increase to generous returns from its management strategy.
The total amount increased US$969 million to US$292.68 billion at the end of last month, Lin Sun-yuan (林孫源), the deputy director-general of the central bank’s department of foreign exchange, said yesterday.
“Returns from foreign exchange reserves accounted for the sharp increase,” Lin said, adding the figures left Taiwan to retain the fourth ranking in the world in terms of foreign reserve possessions.
China tops the ranking, followed by Japan and Russia.
HTC expands sales
HTC Corp (宏達電), the world’s biggest maker of Microsoft Corp Windows-based handsets, said it will expand sales of Google Inc phones to Australia and Singapore this month.
The HTC Dream will be sold through Singapore Telecommunications Ltd in the city-state and via SingTel Optus Pty in Australia, the companies said in a statement yesterday.
The handset will debut on Feb. 16 in Australia, while availability for Singapore hasn’t yet been disclosed, the companies said.
Adobe sees tough year
Adobe Systems Inc sees a tough year ahead in Taiwan as local companies cut down on technology spending, Adobe country manager for Taiwan and Hong Kong Will Hwang (黃柏崑) told reporters yesterday.
“Last year was a good year for Adobe in Taiwan as we saw high double-digit growth in revenues, but such high standards will be a challenge this year,” Hwang said.
The company declined to provide actual sales figures.
Adobe Taiwan is changing its strategy from focusing on single users to focusing on government agencies and companies through partnerships with retailers in the hopes of increasing its customer base amid difficult times, he said.
Towards the end of last year, Adobe headquarters laid off 600 employees. Taiwan operations lost 9 percent of its headcount, mostly in the mobile department, the company said.
NT likely to underperform
The New Taiwan dollar is likely to underperform the currencies of regional economies that are less dependent on exports, notably India and the Philippines, said Emmanuel Ng, an economist at Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp in Singapore.
To take advantage of this, Ng recommends using three-month non-deliverable forward contracts to sell the NT dollar and buy the Indian rupee and Philippine peso, a research note said yesterday.
In Taipei trading, the NT dollar lost NT$0.035 to close at NT$33.705 against the US dollar, with a total of US$588 million changing hands on the Taipei Foreign Exchange.
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