Uncertainty pushes TAIEX down
The TAIEX edged down yesterday, as investors decided to lock in recent gains and reduce their equity holdings due to uncertainty over the direction the government’s efforts to boost the stock market would take, dealers said.
The weighted benchmark index closed down 32.76 points, or 0.43 percent, at 7,609.5, after ranging between a high of 7,669.05 and a low of 7,603.25. Turnover was NT$72.24 billion (US$2.48 billion) for the session.
A total of 1,506 stocks closed up, 3,062 finished down and 401 remained unchanged.
Most of the market’s eight major stock categories closed down, with financial shares suffering the heaviest losses at 0.64 percent.
TWSE announces suspensions
Trading on the local stock market will be suspended between Feb. 7 and Feb. 18 next year for the Lunar New Year holiday, the Taiwan Stock Exchange Corp (TWSE, 台灣證交所) said yesterday.
Trading will open on two Saturdays next year, Feb. 23 and Sept. 14, due to the long New Year break and the Mid-Autumn Festival in September, TWSE said.
Kaohsiung tops local debt list
Local governments posted a total of NT$851.1 billion in debt as of the end of last month, the Web-based “Local Government Debt Clock” released by the Ministry of Finance yesterday showed.
Residents in Greater Kaohsiung shouldered the heaviest debt burden, with public debt totaling NT$223.7 billion at the end of last month, translating into NT$80,600 in debt per capita, ministry data showed.
It is the sixth straight month that Greater Kaohsiung has reported the highest public debt among all local governments since the ministry started to disclose local government debt figures in July on the online debt clock to remind local government agencies to watch their spending.
The Taipei City Government placed second-highest on the list by posting NT$164.2 billion in debt at the end of last month, followed by New Taipei City (新北市), Greater Tainan and Greater Taichung, statistics showed.
Chimei sees monthly profit rise
Chimei Innolux Corp (奇美電子), the nation’s largest LCD panel maker, yesterday announced its consolidated revenue rose 3 percent month-on-month to reach NT$43.3 billion last month. The figure was flat from NT$43.4 billion for the same month last year.
The Jhunan Township (竹南), Miaoli County-based company said in a statement that it shipped about 12.8 million units of large-sized panels last month, up 3.5 percent from October and 5.4 percent higher than a year earlier.
However, shipments of small and medium-sized panels fell by 3.1 percent to 37.8 million units from the previous month.
Council to lure local firms home
Council for Economic Planning and Development Minister Yiin Chii-ming (尹啟銘) yesterday said the government would formulate policies to encourage overseas Taiwanese businesses to return home.
He did not elaborate on the details of government’s plans, but said the nation needed to adjust its export destinations and refocus on Asia rather than Europe and the US, as the Asian market is thriving while Western markets have remained gloomy since the 2008 global financial crisis.
NT dollar down on greenback
The New Taiwan dollar lost ground against the US dollar yesterday, shedding NT$0.025 to close at NT$29.150.
Turnover during trading totaled about US$769 million.
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