Electronics push TAIEX down
The nation’s benchmark index closed lower yesterday because of weak results from the electronics sector, but closed above the 8,500-point mark on strength from old-economy stocks, dealers said.
The TAIEX closed down 36.34 points, or 0.42 percent, at 8,538.57, after moving between 8,410.44 and 8,842.17 on turnover of NT$107.655 billion (US$3.72 billion).
The machinery and electronics sector posted the heaviest losses of the day, finishing 1.2 percent lower, while food shares posted the biggest gains, ending 4 percent higher.
Huawei procuring NT$110bn
Huawei Technologies Co (華為), the world’s No. 2 network equipment maker, yesterday said it was procuring more than NT$110 billion in products and components from Taiwanese tech makers this year, up from last year’s NT$99.5 billion.
The company said in a statement that it is expanding procurement from network base stations and smartphones to tablet PCs, Internet TVs and cloud computing services.
Its Taiwanese suppliers include Hon Hai Group (鴻海集團), Cheng Uei Precision Industry Co (正崴), Delta Electronics Inc’s (台達電) and Chimei Innolux Corp (奇美電子).
Liquidity ratio to rise
The central bank will raise the minimum liquidity ratio for financial institutions to 10 percent from 7 percent from Oct. 1, according to a statement on its Web site.
June jobless rate likely higher
The nation’s nominal unemployment rate for last month will likely be higher than in May, Hsin Ping-lung (辛炳隆), an associate professor in National Taiwan University’s Graduate Institute of National Development, said on Sunday.
Hsin said there was only a small chance the unemployment rate for last month would go down, adding that Taiwan was suffering from structural unemployment that could not simply be solved by greater economic activity.
Hsin also argued that the many college graduates joining the labor market last month were not likely to take on many of the manual labor jobs available, making a drop in the jobless rate unlikely.
The government is scheduled to report last month’s unemployment rate on Friday. Unemployment fell to 4.27 percent in May, its lowest level in 33 months, government data showed.
China home prices rise
New home prices rose in 67 Chinese cities last month, with growth in Beijing and Shanghai accelerating for the first time since the government stepped up efforts this year to curb growth.
In Beijing, new home prices rose 2.2 percent last month from a year earlier, compared with 2.1 percent in May, while in Shanghai they climbed 2.2 percent, compared with 1.4 percent growth the previous month, the Chinese National Bureau of Statistics said on its Web site yesterday.
Home prices in Guangzhou rose 5.4 percent last month from a year ago, compared with 5.1 percent in May. Prices in Chongqing jumped 5.8 percent, compared with 5.3 percent in May, according to the bureau. More than half of the 70 cities the government tracks matched the gains in May or posted faster growth, the data showed.
Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang region, posted the biggest gain at 9.2 percent last month, while Sanya in Hainan Province had the biggest decline of 2 percent last month.
NT dollar falls NT$0.063
The New Taiwan dollar fell against the US currency yesterday, down NT$0.063 to close at NT$28.960.
Turnover totaled US$1.297 billion during the trading session.
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