Late rebound boosts TAIEX
The TAIEX was boosted by a late-session rebound yesterday, coming off an early low caused by lingering concerns over the debt crisis in the eurozone, dealers said.
The benchmark index was up 39.70 points, or 0.55 percent, from the previous session and reached the day’s high of 7,301.50 off an early low of 7,132.80, on turnover of NT$95.58 billion (US$3.20 billion).
At the end of the session, the financial sector scored the highest gains among the eight major sectors of the market, finishing up 1.2 percent, while cement stocks fell 1 percent and foodstuffs lost 1.1 percent.
Manufacturing weakening: TIER
The gloomy global economy and slowing domestic demand continued to weaken the manufacturing sector last month, the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER, 台灣經濟研究院) said yesterday, adding that the sector’s business prospects remain unclear for the rest of the year.
The institute said the overall score of its manufacturing indicator last month was 9.63, up by 0.40 points from 9.23 in March, with the sector flashing a “blue light” — representing sluggishness — for two consecutive months.
TIER uses a five-color system to describe the state of the economy, with red, yellow-red, green, yellow-blue and blue representing overheated, warm, stable, cool and sluggish economies respectively.
DRAM prices set to rise
The price of DRAM chips will continue to increase in the months ahead amid rising demand and fewer product suppliers, a senior executive of Inotera Memories Inc (華亞科技) said yesterday.
Inotera president Charles Kau (高啟全) said the upward trend is expected to continue through the third quarter of this year.
“Average DRAM prices in the April-to-June quarter are expected to be higher than in the first quarter, and may increase further in the third quarter as new laptop models are set to hit the market, stimulating new demand,” Kau said on the sidelines of a company shareholders’ meeting.
Hon Hai sets records
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海) plans to enhance its strategic partnerships with leading global brands to overcome economic uncertainties this year, according to its report to shareholders.
Hon Hai’s annual report, published on Wednesday, showed that the group achieved record revenue of NT$3.45 trillion and net profits of NT$81.59 billion last year, up 15.2 percent and 5.75 percent respectively from the previous year.
Hon Hai plans to hold its shareholders’ meeting on June 18.
IPO attracts subscriber record
Grand Ocean Retail Group Ltd (大洋百貨), a department store chain operator in China, has attracted a record 72,460 subscribers over the past three days for its initial public offering (IPO) on the Taiwan Stock Exchange, underwriter Yuanta Securities Corp (元大證券) said on Wednesday.
The Cayman Islands-registered Grand Ocean has set an issue price of NT$120 for its IPO, scheduled for Wednesday next week, and has raised the number of shares for subscribers from 2 million to 5 million, or 25 percent of the total shares for the listing, Yuanta Securities said.
NT dollar declines
The New Taiwan dollar fell against the US dollar yesterday, declining NT$0.098 to close at NT$29.860 as traders kept moving their funds to the greenback as a safe haven amid lingering concerns over the debt problems in the eurozone, dealers said.
Turnover totaled US$1.01 billion.
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