Electronics reverse early gains
Taiwanese shares closed down 1.43 percent yesterday led by electronics stocks, reversing earlier gains that followed Wall Street’s overnight rally, dealers said.
The TAIEX index fell 100.84 points to 6,955.87 on turnover of NT$159.96 billion (US$5 billion).
Losers led gainers 1,667 to 805 with 135 stocks unchanged.
“I think electronics stocks have risen too much on positive outlook. It’s time to look at the fundamentals,” said Tom Tang of Masterlink Investment Advisory (元富投顧), adding that trade in electronics partly shifted to non-tech shares like plastics.
Chinatrust revises net income
Chinatrust Financial Holding Co (中信金控) revised its first-half net income by more than 90 percent because of accounting provisions.
Net income for the six months ended June 30 fell to a revised NT$353 million from a preliminary NT$5.23 billion reported last month, the company said in a statement yesterday.
The company had to set aside NT$4.1 billion to create a fund for compensating investors who bought structured notes, including Lehman products, chief investment officer Daniel Wu (吳一揆) said by telephone.
Lending ratio continues to fall
The non-performing loan ratio of credit card lending continued to decrease to 1.31 percent in June, down 0.17 percentage points from a month ago and 0.46 percentage points lower from a year earlier, the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) said yesterday.
The number of cards in circulation in June shrank 1.12 percent month-on-month to 31.86 million while the outstanding amount of revolving credit dropped 1.86 percent to NT$226.8 billion, the FSC’s latest statistics showed.
The bad-loan ratio of cash card lending also dropped to 3.275 percent in June, down 0.035 percent points from a month ago and 2.005 percentage points lower than a year earlier, the statistics showed.
The number of cash cards in operation dropped 0.97 percent month-on-month to 1.02 million, while outstanding lending plunged 1.95 percent from a month ago to NT$75.6 billion in June, it said.
Building permit area drops
Fresh building permits, a major leading indicator of short-term economic outlook, totaled 13.12 million square meters for the first six months of the year, dropping 22.5 percent from the same period last year, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday.
Residential construction projects accounted for 6.42 million square meters, or 49 percent, of the new building areas, the statistics agency said, adding that the figures represented a yearly decline of 33.9 percent.
Fresh factory and warehouse construction applications constituted 2.83 million square meters, up 6.8 percent from last year, the DGBAS said.
New office building projects accounted for the remaining 1.32 million square meters, down 28.6 percent year-on-year, it said.
Elpida reports US$466m loss
Japanese semiconductor maker Elpida Memory Inc said Tuesday it lost £44.4 billion (US$466 million) in the April-June quarter but saw signs of an improvement in the ailing chip industry. The figures were an improvement on the previous quarter’s red ink of £60.9 billion.
“We hope to return to profitability in September,” Elpida president Yukio Sakamoto told a press conference.
NT dollar rises slightly
The New Taiwan dollar gained ground against the US dollar on the Taipei Foreign Exchange yesterday, rising NT$0.094 to close at NT$32.674. Turnover was US$734 million.
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