TAIEX closes higher
The TAIEX closed 0.57 percent higher yesterday after a surge on Wall Street overnight, but the gains were limited as the index approached 8,000 points, dealers said.
The index rose 45.85 points to 7,957.53, after fluctuating between 7,915.83 and 7,970.58, on turnover of NT$142.81 billion (US$4.49 billion).
The market opened up 0.63 percent with interest focusing on old economy stocks. Buying of select high-tech heavyweight stocks appeared slow on their relatively high valuations, dealers said.
The market fluctuated in a narrow band throughout trading as investors proved unwilling to chase prices on fears of a possible pullback as the index approached the 8,000-point mark.
A total of 2,377 stocks closed higher and 1,277 lower, while 281 remained unchanged.
Foxconn shares up 2 percent
Shares in Taiwanese IT giant Foxconn (富士康) gained 2.02 percent in Hong Kong yesterday after the company said it had resumed operations at an Indian factory where 250 workers were hospitalized.
The bounce in the company’s shares came after it announced resumption of work at the site in Chennai, southern India, where about half the workforce had been taken ill in an incident thought to be linked to spraying of pesticide.
Fitch downgrades TCB
Fitch Ratings has downgraded both its long-term and short-term rating of Taichung Commercial Bank (台中商銀), citing the lender’s weak earnings generation and core capitalization, the ratings agency said in a statement yesterday.
Fitch said it did not anticipate any meaningful improvement in the lender’s credit prospects in the near-to-medium term, despite the nation’s generally sound economic prospects.
Fitch said it expected the bank’s earnings to be subdued because of limited revenue growth this year. However, given no material change in the lender’s financial or risk profile in the near-term, Fitch offered a stable outlook, the statement said.
Central bank auctions CDs
The central bank yesterday auctioned NT$30 billion in 273-day certificates of deposit (CD) as it continues to absorb excessive funds in the market, a press release said.
The latest sale of CDs yielded an average interest rate of 0.593 percent with a bid-to-cover ratio of 3.8 times, compared with an average interest rate of 0.556 percent from the sales of NT$25 billion worth of 273-day notes on April 12, which had a bid-to-cover ratio of 7.07 times.
UMC buys new equipment
United Microelectronics Corp (聯電), the world’s second-biggest contract chipmaker, bought NT$526.6 million worth of equipment from Applied Materials South East Asia Pte, the Hsinchu-based company said in an exchange filing yesterday.
Chun Wey Yi denies report
Chung Wei Yi Co (中瑋一), a Taipei-based investment company, denied a newspaper report on Monday that it plans to sell its stake in the life insurance unit it acquired from Aegon NV in April last year.
TransGlobe Life Insurance Inc (全球人壽) is expected to post profits for the next three years starting from the second half of this year, the two companies said in a joint statement published in the Chinese-language Commercial Times yesterday.
NT dollar gains ground
The New Taiwan dollar gained ground against the US dollar yesterday, rising NT$0.018 to close at NT$31.850.
Turnover totaled US$771 million during the trading session.
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Bank of America Corp nearly doubled its forecast for the nation’s economic growth this year, adding to a slew of upgrades even after a rip-roaring last year propelled by demand for artificial intelligence (AI). The firm lifted its projection to 8 percent from 4.5 percent on “relentless global demand” for the hardware that Taiwanese companies make, according to a note dated yesterday by analysts including Xiaoqing Pi (皮曉青). Taiwan’s GDP expanded 8.63 percent last year, the fastest pace since 2010. The increase “reflects our sustained optimism over Taiwan’s technology driven expansion and is reinforced by several recent developments,” including a more stable currency,
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