Stocks post gain
Shares rose slightly yesterday as gains in chip heavyweights more than countered losses in most non-technology stocks.
The TAIEX added 4.21 points, or 0.1 percent, to 6,490.68.
"Investors continued to chase up some technology stocks after their recent declines," said Morris Chen, an analyst at Daiwa Securities SMBC-Cathay Co (大和國泰證券).
Taiwan Semiconductor Manu-facturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world's largest contract chipmaker by revenue, soared 2.7 percent to NT$61.4, extending Thursday's 1.4 percent rise.
The market's most-traded stock was United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the global No. 2 contract chipmaker in terms of revenue. Shares in UMC rose 1.9 percent to NT$19.15. Before Thursday's rebound, TSMC lost nearly 6 percent between March 3 and Wednesday, during which time UMC shed 3 percent.
TSMC sales compare well
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufac-turing Co (TSMC, 台積電) said yesterday its sales last month totaled NT$24.01 billion (US$73.65 million), down 8.3 percent from NT$26.18 billion in January but up 39.6 percent from a year earlier.
"The sequential decline is mainly due to three fewer working days in February," company vice president and chief financial officer Lora Ho (何麗梅) said in a company statement.
Rival United Microelectronics Corp (聯電) said on Tuesday that its sales fell to NT$7.52 billion last month from 8.41 billion in January, but were up 22.50 percent from a year earlier.
Fubon, Polaris to track FTSE
Fubon Asset Management Co (富邦投信) and Polaris Asset Manage-ment Ltd (寶來投信) will start two exchange-traded funds in Taiwan for investors to track FTSE Group indexes.
Fubon will start a fund that tracks FTSE's Taiwan Technology Index, while the Polaris fund will match FTSE's Taiwan Mid-Cap Index, the Taiwan Stock Exchange said in a statement. The pair signed agreements with the exchange yesterday, the statement said, without saying when the funds will start or how much money they expect to raise.
The first exchange-traded fund, Polaris Top 50 Tracker Fund, which tracks FTSE's Taiwan 50 index, was started in 2003 by Polaris.
Uni-President is China's Kraft
Leading food maker Uni-President Enterprises Corp (統一企業) said yesterday that its Chinese unit is scheduled to start making and marketing Kraft-branded beverages by mid-year in China.
"Eyeing the beverage market in China, Uni-President has joined alliance with Kraft Foods to utilize Uni-President's production lines and broad marketing network in China," an official said.
The alliance is expected to help Uni-President group make better use of its production lines in China to minimise costs and improve efficiency, the official said.
The alliance is the second cooperation between the two partners. Uni-President's trading arm Nan Lien International Corp (南聯國際) has served as an agent for Kraft's Maxwell coffee in Taiwan since the 1980s.
Energy use falls
Energy use fell for the first time in nine months in January because factories burned less fuel in the Lunar New Year holiday.
Energy consumption declined 0.95 percent from a year earlier to the equivalent of 8.57 million kiloliters (53.9 million barrels) of oil, after climbing 2.7 percent in December, the Bureau of Energy said yesterday. It was the first drop since April last year.
The nation used 16.3 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity in January, 3.2 percent more than last January, the bureau said.
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