Share prices dip
Share prices closed lower yesterday, with the TAIEX falling 42.16 points, or 0.52 percent, to close at 7,920.06.
The bourse opened at 7,962.91 and fluctuated between 7,974.89 and 7,920.06 during the day’s trading. Market turnover totaled NT$114.13 billion (US$3.59 billion).
Losers outnumbered gainers 1,783 to 1,136, with 299 remaining unchanged.
Foreign investors and Chinese qualified domestic institutional investors were net buyers of NT$2.6 billion-worth of shares.
Government sells 30-year bonds
The government sold NT$30 billion of 30-year bonds at a yield of 2.23 percent at an auction today, the central bank said in a statement yesterday. The sale of the securities maturing in January 2040 attracted bids for 1.96 times the amount of debt on offer, it said. The government last sold the same bonds in January, at a yield of 2.294 percent. That offer garnered a bid-to-cover ratio of 2.84 times.
Tashin bank to boost capital
Taishin Financial Holding Co (台新金控) said its banking unit plans to issue NT$10 billion of subordinated debentures, according to a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday. Taishin International Bank (台新銀行) plans to use proceeds to raise its capital adequacy ratio, the statement said.
E-Tone to sell Auria shares
Local solar cell maker E-Tone Solar Tech Co Ltd (益通光能) plans to sell 19.21 million shares of local thin-film solar module maker Auria Solar (宇通光能) to boost capital for operation and to refocus on core business, the company said in a statement filed with the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday.
E-Tone would be left with a minimal share of Auria Solar after the transaction because it has sold 18.29 million Aurio Solar shares previously. E-Tone originally held 39.6 million shares, or 19 percent-stake in, of Auria Solar.
The announcement came after E-Tone reported losses of NT$4.28 billion last year as global financial turmoil took a toll on solar industry, down from net profits of NT$1.21 billion in 2008.
Acer profits surge 29 percent
Acer Inc (宏碁), the world’s second-largest PC brand, yesterday said last year’s profits grew 29 percent year-on-year to NT$11.35 billion, on the back of strong sales of notebook computers.
Earnings per share were NT$4.3, the company said in a statement.
Consolidated revenues marked a record high of NT$573.98 billion, a 5 percent rise from 2008, while operating income rose 9 percent to NT$15.34 billion, it said.
Consolidated revenues and operating income saw a record high in the fourth quarter last year, with both seeing 25 percent growth to NT$168.2 billion and NT$4.97 billion respectively, it said.
The company is scheduled to hold its shareholders’ meeting in Taipei on June 18.
He Jian acquisition delayed
United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) said in a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday that completion of its acquisition of He Jian Technology (Suzhou) Co (和艦) has been delayed.
The company said on April 29 that it planned to buy the 85 percent stake in He Jian it doesn’t already own for as much as US$285 million. The deal was expected to be completed by yesterday, the filing said. UMC didn’t say when the deal would be finalized.
NT dollar slips slightly
The New Taiwan dollar lost ground against the US dollar on the Taipei Foreign Exchange yesterday, declining NT$0.009 to close at NT$31.819. Turnover was US$742 million.
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New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last