Wall Street rally boosts TAIEX
The TAIEX extended its momentum yesterday from a session earlier as investors took cues from an overnight rally on Wall Street on the back of improving economic data in the US, dealers said.
Buying focused on the old-economy, which had been a market laggard, from high-tech stocks that had outperformed the broader market in recent sessions, they said.
Smartphone vendor HTC Corp (宏達電) failed to end above the NT$200 mark amid concerns over its bottom line, they added.
The gains on the local bourse, however, were capped by the end of the session as profit-taking emerged after the index breached the 7,200 mark, while turnover remained thin with many investors on the sidelines, they said.
The TAIEX closed up 30.83 points, or 0.42 percent, at 7,210.47, on turnover of NT$75.42 billion (US$2.58 billion).
Panel makers to raise load rate
LCD panel makers are expected to boost utilization rates at some of their factories to 82 percent this quarter, from 73 percenet last quarter amid rising demand and stabilizing panel prices, WitsView, a display research arm of Taipei-based TrendForce Corp (集邦科技), said in a report on Thursday.
WitsView said China’s new program of subsidizing purchases of energy-efficient TVs continued to boost demand.
The researcher also attributed the expected rise in equipment load rate to efforts by panel makers to develop new products such as super-high-resolution displays, with the new products expected to consume 5 percent of capacity during the initial development stage.
Factory utilization is expected to rise to 87 percent in the fourth quarter of next year on growing demand, WitsView said.
China to name clearing bank
China will soon appoint a clearing bank to carry through the cross-strait currency settlement agreement, a statement by the central bank said yesterday.
The statement follows local media reports that China may only set up a correspondent bank for managing New Taiwan dollar business.
“This is not the truth,” the statement said.
Citing remarks made by China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokesman Yang Yi (楊毅), the bank said the Chinese government has launched its process to select a clearing bank for NT dollar-related business in Taiwan as soon as possible.
South Asia, Mideast targeted
The Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday said more than 100 Taiwanese companies would join forces with the ministry to promote their auto components, industrial machinery and information and communications technology products in South Asia and the Middle East in the following weeks.
“Compared with the US and European markets, we saw strong economic momentum in emerging countries like Vietnam, Indonesia, India and Saudi Arabia,” Bureau of Foreign Trade deputy director-general Chang Chun-fu (張俊福) said.
According to the Ministry of Finance’s monthly exports and imports report, emerging countries accounted for 28.1 percent of total exports in the January-September period, up 5.6 percent from the same period last year. Southeast Asian countries had an annual growth rate of 10 percent, followed by African countries at 8.8 percent and the Middle East at 6.8 percent.
NT dollar down on intervention
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday edged down NT$0.01 against the US dollar to close at NT$29.300 on continued efforts by the central bank, dealers said.
Dealers believe the central bank is trying to keep the US dollar around the NT$29.30 level to maintain local exporters’ competitiveness.
Turnover totaled US$424 million.
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