TAIEX falls for seventh day
The TAIEX fell for the seventh consecutive trading day yestderday, but saw its losses limited by surges in large-cap stocks with the help of injections of funds from government-run funds, dealers said.
The main bourse will be affected in the short term by companies’ third-quarter results and their guidance for the fourth quarter, they said.
The weighted index ranged between a high of 7,165.10 and a low of 7,091.19 before finishing down 42.39 points, or 0.59 percent, at 7,091.67.
Turnover was NT$70.48 billion (US$2.41 billion) during the day’s session, with the value of securities purchased on margin dropping substantially, said Alex Lu (呂健良), a manager at Taishin Securities Investment Trust Co (台新投信).
A total of 1,529 stocks closed up, 2,844 finished down and 353 remained unchanged.
Analysts lower HTC estimates
Shares in HTC Corp (宏達電) fell by the daily down-limit in yesterday’s session, after several foreign brokerages trimmed their target prices for the smartphone vendor, which offered a disappointing sales forecast for this quarter on Friday.
HTC closed 7 percent down at NT$219.5 on the Taiwan Stock Exchange, down 55.84 percent so far this year.
JPMorgan Securities cut HTC’s target price to NT$100, the lowest among foreign brokerages, in a report released yesterday, while HSBC Securities cut its price to NT$140. Deutsche Bank AG and Barclays lowered their estimates to NT$200 and NT$175 respectively.
HTC’s sales will probably not improve until next year’s Mobile World Congress, according to JPMorgan’s report, which forecast the handset maker would see its earnings per share this year and over the next two years reach NT$19.63, NT$7.21 and NT$5.54 respectively.
Yuan clearing scheduled soon
Yuan clearing in Taiwan will start after the leadership handover in China next month, central bank Governor Perng Fai-nan (彭淮南) told legislators yesterday.
In response to lawmakers’ questions, Perng said that the timetable for settlement does not represent any delay in implementation. He said China is very likely to name a yuan clearing bank in Taiwan after the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) 18th National Congress starting on Nov. 8.
The central bank last month appointed the Bank of Taiwan’s (台灣銀行) branch in Shanghai as the New Taiwan dollar’s clearing bank against the yuan in China.
Taiwan low on confidence index
Taiwan scored 95 in a business confidence index, much lower than the world’s average of 111, according to a poll published yesterday.
Conducted by Regus PLC, the Business Confidence Index painted a gloomy picture for Taiwan, which had a score similar to countries dealing with debt crises, such as Belgium (96), France (95) and the United Kingdom (94).
Among Asian countries, Taiwan’s score was lower than Singapore (121), Hong Kong (118) and China (110), but higher than Japan (93). The poll was based on the views of more than 24,000 senior managers and business owners in 92 countries.
The Luxembourg-based company said many of the business respondents interviewed in Taiwan suggested the government must provide more incentives to help small and medium-sized companies.
NT dollar gains ground on US
The New Taiwan dollar gained ground against the US dollar yesterday, adding NT$0.008 to close at NT$29.292.
Turnover totaled US$446 million during the trading session.
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