TAIEX rises to one-month high
Taiwanese shares closed up 0.98 percent yesterday to a one-month high on strong buying in technology, financial and property stocks, dealers said.
The weighted index rose 65.31 points to 6,715.22 on turnover of NT$127.74 billion (US$3.99 billion), the highest since the June 6 close of 6,856.74.
Gainers led losers 1,447 to 797 with 159 stocks unchanged.
“Financial stocks have become the buying targets, given the current lack of mainstream leaders in the market,” KGI Securities (凱基證券) trader Bill Huang said.
The financial sector edged up 0.9 percent, led by news that investment bank China Development Financial Holdings Corp (中華開發金控) booked a disposal gain of about NT$860 million from selling its stake in Taipei Financial Center Corp (台北金融大樓公司), operator of the Taipei 101 skyscraper.
AUO’s June sales rose 9.6%
AU Optronics Corp (AUO, 友達光電), the world’s third-biggest maker of liquid-crystal-display (LCD) panels, yesterday said that sales last month reached their highest in eight months, another sign of recovery from the industry’s worst downturn.
Last month, AUO posted NT$30.4 billion (US$922 million) in revenues, up 9.6 percent from NT$27.7 billion in May. On an annual basis, however, sales were down 17.3 percent.
Second-quarter sales reached NT$82.5 billion, up 62.6 percent from the first quarter. Compared with the same period last year, they were down 33.2 percent.
Shipments of PC and TV panels jumped more than 70 percent quarter-on-quarter to 22.41 million units in the April-to-June quarter, surpassing the company’s estimate of a 50 percent increase made in late April.
AUO said shipments last month were limited by a shortage of glass substrates.
Quanta loses patent suit
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達), the world’s largest maker of notebook computers, must pay US$52 million for infringing a patent covering technology for identifying the type of disk inserted into a disk drive, a jury said.
The federal jury in Marshall, Texas, deliberated about four hours on Monday before finding Quanta willfully infringed the patent of LaserDynamics and awarded the damages.
Based in Kanagawa-Ken, Japan, LaserDynamics sued in 2006, claiming Quanta and Asustek Computer Inc (華碩) imported and sold DVD players that used its patent. Asustek earlier settled with LaserDynamics.
Quanta said it would appeal the verdict.
Energy use drops in May
The nation’s energy consumption declined for the 11th straight month in May because of reduced demand from manufacturers amid the global recession.
Consumption of coal, petroleum, gas, thermal energy and electricity dropped 10 percent from a year earlier to the equivalent of 9.61 million kiloliters of oil, or about 1.95 million barrels a day, the Bureau of Energy said in an e-mailed report yesterday.
Industrial users slashed energy use by 14 percent, it said.
Consumption of petroleum products fell 6.4 percent from a year earlier to the equivalent of 4.47 million kiloliters of oil in May, the bureau said.
Natural gas use dropped 2.1 percent to 110.2 million cubic meters and coal consumption declined 12 percent to 5.06 million tonnes, it said.
NT dollar weakens
The New Taiwan dollar declined NT$0.001 to close at NT$32.989 against the US dollar on turnover of US$827 million at the Taipei Foreign Exchange yesterday.
Facing the rapidly evolving global COVID-19 pandemic, Citibank Taiwan Ltd (台灣花旗) has proactively taken precautionary measures. “The health and safety of our colleagues and their families, as well as our clients and the communities we serve, are of the utmost importance. We continue to take proactive measures to preserve their well-being while we maintain our ability to serve our clients,” Citibank Taiwan chairman Paulus Mok (莫兆鴻) said in a statement yesterday. “We have local and regional contingency plans in place, and we have well-established business continuity plans for the firm. We are monitoring the situation closely, adjusting our operations accordingly,
UPGRADE AND TRANSFORM: Although the cross-strait trade deal might remain, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said businesses should prepare for any disruptions Taiwan might face a decline in foreign trade with China if the cross-strait Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) ends this year, Minister of Economic Affairs Shen Jong-chin (沈榮津) said yesterday. The agreement, which was signed and put into effect in 2010 to reduce trade barriers across the Taiwan Strait, is expected to end this year, despite not having an exact termination date. “We have not received notification [from China] that it wishes to terminate ECFA,” Shen told reporters prior to attending a meeting at the Legislative Yuan. “Even if we are notified, the agreement would only cease after six months.” While acknowledging the
GoShare, an electric scooter sharing service provider with Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), plans to expand to Tainan next quarter in a strategic alliance with Aeon Motor Co (宏佳騰). The company currently offers its services in Taipei and Taoyuan. “Tainan is very popular among tourists. The city receives an average of 22.94 million tourists every year,” GoShare head Henry Chiang (姜家煒) told a news conference yesterday in Taipei, citing Tourism Bureau statistics. “Besides, the city has a long history of riding scooters,” he said. Each household owns an average of 2.5 scooters, he added. “Expanding presence” is one of four strategies GoShare is adopting for this
Three major hotel chains yesterday launched a joint campaign to aid their coronavirus-affected businesses by giving employees NT$100 million (US$3.31 million) of hotel vouchers. L’Hotel de Chine Group (LDC, 雲朗觀光), Hotel Royal Group (老爺大酒店集團) and Caesar Park Hotels and Resorts (凱撒飯店) teamed up to prevent a further decline in business as foreign tourist arrivals have come to a virtual standstill amid travel restrictions and health worries. “We decided to set aside competition and join forces to prop up the industry is bearing the brunt of diminished economic activity,” LDC president Emile Sheng (盛治仁) told a news conference at Caesar Metro Taipei Hotel
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