Stocks close lower
Taiwanese stocks closed 1.38 percent lower yesterday on profit-taking after recent gains, dealers said.
The TAIEX index fell 105.35 points to 7,503.31 on turnover of NT$160.78 billion (US$5.02 billion).
Losers outnumbered gainers 1,677 to 950, while 193 shares remained unchanged.
“Investors believe that [Wednesday’s] TAIEX hitting 7,600 points is enough for now,” Capital Securities (群益證券) trader Diana Wu said.
Shares closed at a more than 15-month high on Wednesday, led by financials and asset-related stocks. Reports that the government’s National Stabilization Fund may offload shares to realize profits also prompted selling, Wu said.
Quanta sales jump 18%
Sales of Quanta Computer Inc (廣達電腦), the world’s largest contract notebook maker, posted a rise of 18 percent to NT$72.8 billion (US$2.3 billion) last month from a year earlier as the world’s PC market picks up steam.
The growth is the highest for Quanta this year, and is up 21.2 percent from August, the company said in a statement.
For the first nine months of the year, Quanta saw negative annual sales growth for every month except June and last month, according to company figures.
Notebook shipments rose to 3.6 million units last month from 3 million in August. Total notebook shipments in the third quarter hit 9.7 million units, up 23 percent from the second quarter’s 7.9 million units, the company said.
Separately, Wistron Corp (緯創) reported yesterday that sales last month reached NT$57.79 billion, up 28.3 percent from the previous month and a record monthly high for the company.
Wistron, the nation’s third-largest contract notebook maker, said it shipped 2.4 million units last month and 6.9 million units in the third quarter.
Financial firm profits jump
Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控), the nation’s biggest financial services company by market value, reported that its nine-month profit more than doubled to NT$7.85 billion, or NT$0.81 per share, it said in a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday, citing unaudited figures. The Taipei-based company posted net income of NT$3.84 billion, or NT$0.40 a share, a year earlier.
Mega Financial Holding Co (兆豐金控), the nation’s second-biggest financial services company by market capitalization, said yesterday that its nine-month profit more than quadrupled to NT$11.75 billion, or NT$1.06 per share, from a year ago, according to a stock exchange filing.
Meanwhile, Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控) reported that its nine-month profit rose to NT$14.71 billion, or NT$1.82 a share, and First Financial Holding Co (第一金控) reported its nine-month net income fell about 43 percent to NT$4.78 billion, or NT$0.76 per share, according to their exchange filings.
NT dollar steady amid probe
The New Taiwan dollar was little changed after the Chinese-language Commercial Times newspaper said the central bank is trying to identify foreign-exchange speculators by searching through bond sales data for last month. The paper, citing an unidentified central bank official, didn’t say what action the bank may take.
The NT dollar closed NT$0.037 higher at NT$32.143 against its US counterpart in Taipei, according to Taipei Forex Inc.
The local currency has gained 2.2 percent this year on capital inflows. It may advance another 4 percent to NT$30.9 against the greenback by the end of next year, according to a Bloomberg survey of analysts.
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