Shares close higher
Share prices closed higher yesterday, with the TAIEX moving up 38.5 points, or 0.49 percent, to close at 7,886.34.
The local bourse opened at 7,861.27 and fluctuated between 7,922.48 and 7,847.55 during the day’s trading. Market turnover totaled NT$135.88 billion (US$3.72 billion). Foreign investors and Chinese QDIIs were net buyers of NT$12.45 billion in shares.
Gainers outnumbered losers 2,218 to 898, with 341 stocks remaining unchanged.
HTC disagrees with Apple
HTC Corp (宏達電), the leading maker of smartphones running on Windows Mobile and Android platforms, said yesterday it did not consent to a lawsuit filed by rival Apple Inc, which accused it of patent infringement.
“HTC disagrees with Apple’s actions and will fully defend itself,” HTC CEO Peter Chou (周永明) said in a statement. “We will continue to embrace competition through our own innovation as a healthy way for consumers to get the best mobile experience possible.”
Apple filed the lawsuit early this month in a US District Court in the state of Delaware and with the US International Trade Commission, accusing HTC of infringing on 20 iPhone patents related to the “user interface, underlying architecture and hardware” of the iPhone.
MediaTek approves dividend
MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the nation’s biggest handset chip designer, said yesterday its board approved a plan to pay a cash dividend of NT$26 per share and a stock dividend of 0.2 percent, or two shares for every 1,000 shares held by investors, according to a stock exchange filing submitted by the Hsinchu-based company.
The cash dividend of NT$26 per share would represent a dividend yield of 4.81 percent based on its closing share prices of NT$541 yesterday.
United Microelectronics Corp (聯電), meanwhile, plans to hire 2,400 engineers this year, the world’s second-largest contract chipmaker said in an e-mailed statement yesterday.
Sweetener oversubscribed
Hong Kong-listed Global Sweeteners Holdings Ltd (大成糖業控股) said it received subscriptions for 10.6 times the 8.5 million Taiwan Depositary Receipts (TDRs) it offered to the public last week at NT$15.50 per unit.
The company is also offering 76.5 million TDRs to selected institutional and individual investors through a book building process, a statement filed with the Hong Kong stock exchange said.
Top Food loan approved
Top Food Industry Corp (台灣大食品) yesterday secured a NT$1.3 billion syndicated loans from eight domestic banks, the loan’s leading bank, Bank of Taiwan (臺灣銀行) said in a press statement.
The loan will be used to repay part of its old debts and to fund future operations, it said.
Eight lenders oversubscribed the loan by 80 percent, which showed their confidence in the Taichung-based flour supplier, it said.
Shoppers turn ‘greener’
More than six in 10 local shoppers are buying items that are either “fair trade” or environmentally friendly, a MasterCard survey showed yesterday.
The credit card issuer’s poll found that 73 percent of domestic shoppers wouldn’t mind paying extra to purchase items that follow the principal of fair trade.
That was more than the average of 66 percent in 13 Asia-Pacific markets, the issuer said.
Another 62 percent of local shoppers would also pay for environmentally friendly items, while another 62 percent said that they would support the bid to donate a certain percentage of the sale to a charity cause, the statement said.
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