Wall Street weighs on TAIEX
Shares closed 0.4 percent lower yesterday as investors tracked falls on Wall Street and other regional markets, dealers said.
The weighted index fell 24.90 points to 6,195.91 on turnover of NT$99.1 billion (US$3.01 billion).
Losers outnumbered gainers 1,093 to 994, while 182 shares remained unchanged. The market opened high, but the weak rebound was not sustained. The market was pulled back into negative territory in midday trading and closed at nearly the day’s lowest level.
“The rebound was expected, given the thin volume,” Allen Lin of Concord Securities (康和證券) said, adding that the market was weighed by the falls on Wall Street and other markets of the region.
The market has shed 900 points, or 12 percent, since early this month after a stronger-than-expected rally of 3,000 points on the back of ample liquidity.
Fitch downgrades Shin Kong
Fitch Ratings Ltd said yesterday that it decided to downgrade ratings on Shin Kong Financial Holding Co (新光金控) and its subsidiaries, with a negative outlook.
The ratings downgrade reflected mainly a “much weakened capitalization” in the financial group’s insurance unit, Shin Kong Life Insurance Co (新光人壽), the statement said.
It also reflected the negative impacts of the parent company’s “increased debt gearing and reduced liquidity,” it added.
Fitch said the challenging economic conditions and extremely low interest rates would continue to weigh on Shin Kong Life Insurance’s profitability and place downward pressure on its capitalization.
The ratings agency said it was also concerned that further financial weakness in Shin Kong Financial and Shin Kong Life Insurance would have a negative impact on Shin Kong Commercial Bank (新光銀行) and Shin Kong Securities Co (新壽證券).
Nan Ya bonds rated ‘tw-AA-’
Taiwan Ratings Corp (中華信評), a local arm of Standard & Poor’s, yesterday assigned its “tw-AA-” rating to Nan Ya Plastics Corp’s (南亞塑膠) five-year NT$5 billion unsecured corporate bonds.
Nan Ya is the nation’s largest plastics maker by revenue and also one of the subsidiaries of Formosa Plastics Group (台塑集團), the nation’s biggest industrial conglomerate.
The company priced the bonds at 1.84 percent in coupon rate and planned to use the proceeds for the repayment of existing debts, Taiwan Ratings said.
In February, Nan Ya sold NT$5 billion in five-year bonds at 1.88 percent in coupon rate.
Pavilion opens in Beijing
More than 90 tourism operators from Taiwan will take part in the opening of a Taiwan pavilion today at the Beijing International Travel Expo, which runs through Saturday, Taiwan’s Travel Association of Chinese (TAC) chairman Hsu Chin-jui (許晉睿) said yesterday at a news conference in Beijing.
Hsu said Taiwan welcomes Chinese visitors and that this was also the theme of the Taiwan pavilion at the expo, so that visitors could get a feel for Taiwan’s charm and vigor and the hospitality of its people.
Thirty-three agencies, including from Taipei City, Kaohsiung City and Taipei, Miaoli and Nantou counties, are at the fair.
NT dollar near one-month low
The New Taiwan dollar traded near a one-month low yesterday as a decline in US stocks damped investor appetite for riskier assets in emerging markets.
The NT dollar dropped NT$0.004 to NT$32.889 against the US currency at the 4pm close, Taipei Forex Inc said. The local currency touched NT$33.142 on Tuesday, the weakest level since May 18.
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