Shares fall ahead of GDP data
Taiwanese shares closed 0.82 percent lower yesterday ahead of the government’s release of its GDP forecast for next year, dealers said.
The TAIEX index fell 55.35 points to 6,733.23 on turnover of NT$88.84 billion (US$2.7 billion).
Losers outnumbered gainers 1,807 to 544, while 131 stocks were unchanged.
The market opened low, with the weighted index diving to the day’s low of 6,647.32. But then bargain-hunting set in, testing the 20-day moving average.
“The bargain-hunting was expected after the recent fall,” President Securities (統一證券) analyst Vickie Hsieh (謝雯霞) said.
Hsieh expected the selling pressure to continue, and “the market would not become stabilized unless it can stay above the 20-day moving average over the next three trading sessions.”
Lenovo to buy Taiwanese
Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想), China’s biggest maker of personal computers, plans to spend about US$2.7 billion procuring parts and equipment from Taiwanese companies, an official at the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA, 外貿協會) said yesterday.
“The order will be fulfilled in a short period of time, definitely not over several years,” TAITRA president and chief executive officer Chao Yuen-chuan (趙永全) said.
Lenovo will hold a signing ceremony on Monday in Taipei, Chao said.
Lenovo joined 55 other Chinese companies on a purchasing trip in Taiwan this week.
King Yuan to invest in TMC
Local chip tester King Yuan Electronics Co Ltd (京元電子) yesterday said that its board approved a proposal to invest as much as NT$300 million (US$9.1 million) in the government-backed Taiwan Memory Co (TMC, 台灣創新記憶體公司), according to a company filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
Last week, Siliconware Precision Industries Co (矽品精密), the world’s second-biggest chip packager, announced that it would invest between NT$1 billion and NT$2 billion in TMC.
Trend Micro looking locally
Anti-virus company Trend Micro Inc (趨勢科技) is focusing on opportunities in cloud computing by tapping into local software engineering expertise, Trend Micro founder and chairman Steve Chang (張明正) said yesterday at an awards ceremony in Taipei.
Trend Micro also offered employment contracts and financial rewards to winners of its 2009 “Engineer on the Cloud” competition, which took place on Tuesday and Wednesday, Chang said.
Taipei 46th in living costs
Among 73 cities around the globe, Oslo, Zurich, Copenhagen, Geneva, Tokyo and New York are the world’s priciest cities, while Asian consumers in Tokyo, Hong Kong and Taipei have the biggest purchasing power in Asia, UBS’ tri-annual “prices and earnings” study showed yesterday.
In terms of the cost of living, Taipei ranked 46th, while Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing were 28th, 41st and 51st respectively, the study showed.
The study, based on a standardized basket of 122 goods and services, found that New York, Oslo, Geneva and Tokyo emerged as especially expensive places to live after rent prices were factored in, UBS said in a press release.
The study also said employees in Zurich and Geneva have the highest net wages, while employees in Delhi, Manila, Jakarta and Mumbai earn less than one-15th of the after-tax hourly wage in Switzerland.
NT dollar gains ground
The New Taiwan dollar gained against the US dollar on the Taipei Foreign Exchange yesterday, rising NT$0.044 to close at NT$32.966. Turnover was US$781 million.
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