TAIEX loses almost 1 percent
The weak performance of high-tech stocks was blamed for the fall in the TAIEX yesterday, after Wall Street closed down on Friday and other Asian stock markets also declined, dealers said.
The TAIEX shed 83.70 points, or 0.96 percent, to end at 8,665.85 after moving between 8,633.55 and 8,749.55 on turnover of NT$96.998 billion (US$3.37 billion).
Among the eight major categories, construction stocks posted the biggest fall of the day, ending 1.6 percent lower, while the financial sector gained 0.1 percent.
Graduate vacancies set to rise
When new graduates join the labor market this summer, they will each have 2.8 jobs waiting for them, 104 Job Bank said yesterday.
The figure marks the highest ratio of job supply to job demand for the summer period in the past six years.
According to 104 Job Bank, the historic ratio of the number of jobs available for those with less than a year of work experience to the number of candidates for July was 2.30 in 2006, 1.90 in 2007, 1.37 in 2008, 0.93 in 2009 and 2.09 last year.
Regis Chen (陳力孑), 104 Job Bank’s marketing director, said despite abundant employment opportunities, new graduates still need to work hard to impress potential employers.
Chen said employers usually take no more than 21 seconds to decide whether to keep a jobseeker’s resume and call them in for an interview.
He urged new graduates to work on improving the content of their resumes and to take the initiative to apply for their ideal jobs.
Elpida to sell 57.3m shares
Elpida Memory Inc, the world’s third-largest maker of computer-memory chips, plans to raise ¥79.7 billion (US$987 million) selling shares and convertible bonds.
The chipmaker plans to sell 57.3 million new shares, equivalent to 27 percent of its outstanding stock, for about ¥52.2 billion by as early as July 25, the Tokyo-based company said in a statement. The company also plans to sell ¥27.5 billion in convertible bonds, with the interest rate being decided on Friday, it said.
Tokyo-based Elpida, bailed out by the government in 2009, plans to sell 18.3 million of the shares to local investors and as many as 39 million to overseas investors, according to the company.
Earlier this year, Elpida sold NT$4.26 billion of Taiwan Depositary Receipts to fund research and development. The company’s shares began trading in Taipei this year.
Acer, Compal post mixed data
Acer Inc (宏碁), one of the world’s top-three PC brands, yesterday posted NT$31.9 billion in unconsolidated sales last month, down 10.6 percent from May and a decline of 28 percent from the same month last year.
Its second-quarter unconsolidated sales were NT$96.1 billion, down 5.9 percent from the first quarter, the firm said in a statement.
Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶), the world’s second-largest laptop contract maker, posted revenues of NT$57 billion last month.
This was a drop of 23 percent from same month last year, but an increase of 2.8 percent from May, according to a company statement.
Compal’s revenues for the first six months were NT$333.1 billion, down 24 percent from last year. It shipped 10.8 million to 10.9 million laptops in the second quarter, up 4.8 percent from 10.4 million in the first quarter.
NT dollar closes lower
The New Taiwan dollar fell against its US counterpart yesterday, down NT$0.071 to close at NT$28.866. Turnover totaled US$657 million during the trading session. The local unit opened at NT$28.805 and moved between NT$28.715 and NT$28.866 before the close.
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