Wed, Apr 11, 2007 page11

• Business Briefs

  • STAFF WRITER, WITH AGENCIES
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  TAIEX closes down

  Shares closed little changed yesterday as profit-taking put a lid on follow-through buying after the market breached the 8,000 points level last week, dealers said.

  The TAIEX closed down 8.17 points or 0.10 percent at 8,048.39, on turnover of NT$113.68 billion (US$3.44 billion).

  On the local foreign exchange market, the New Taiwan dollar lost ground against its US counterpart, declining NT$0.016 to close at NT$33.088. Turnover was US$811 million on the Taipei Forex Inc.

  CPC lowers gas price

  State-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) announced yesterday that it will lower wholesale prices of domestic gasoline and diesel products by NT$1 a liter, as a result of falling crude oil costs.

  The new rates were set to take effect last night at midnight, according to a company statement published on its Web site.

  The change will bring the price of 98-octane unleaded gasoline to NT$28.50 (US$0.86) per liter, and those of 95-octane unleaded gasoline to NT$27 and 92-octane unleaded gasoline, NT$26.30.

  Prices of top-grade diesel oil will be NT$23.60 per liter and that of ordinary diesel, NT$23.1, the company said.

  Smaller rival Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) later yesterday said it would also drop its prices, effective from 2am today.

  Ya Hsin gets loan extension

  Ya Hsin Industrial Co (雅新實業), one of the nation's leading printed circuit board makers, yesterday said more than 30 credit banks had agreed initially to extend the interest payment on its loans for six months, easing the firm's cash crunch.

  Ya Hsin is under pressure to obtain financial support from credit banks after its stock was banned from margin trading last week on alleged financial flaws.

  In a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday, Ya Hsin said some credit banks had also agreed not to unfreeze its deposit accounts.

  The banks froze the company's accounts last month following probes into the firm's alleged financial blunder.

  TSMC sales rise

  World No. 1 chip foundry Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday posted sales of NT$22.56 billion (US$683 million) for last month, up 7.68 percent from February.

  In the first quarter to last month, sales stood at NT$64.90 billion, exceeding the company's guidance of between NT$62 billion and NT$64 billion, but down from NT$74.96 billion achieved in the fourth quarter of last year.

  Exports to PRC in third place

  Statistics compiled by China's customs showed that Taiwan was the country's third-largest source of imports, behind only Japan and South Korea, for the first two months of this year, a Ministry of Economic Affairs spokesman said yesterday.

  The statistics show that 10.36 percent of China's imports for the period came from Taiwan, down 0.98 percentage points from the figure for the same period a year earlier, while 13.91 percent of imports came from Japan, and 11.59 percent came from South Korea.

  Elpida pulls in profit

  Elpida Memory Inc, Japan's biggest maker of memory for personal computers, reported a record annual profit, reversing from a loss a year earlier.

  Net income was ¥53 billion (US$445 million) in the 12 months ended March 31, compared with a ?4.7 billion loss the previous year, Tokyo-based Elpida said in a statement yesterday. Sales doubled to a record ?490 billion.

  "Until the end of the third quarter, sales grew because of a rise in DRAM chip sales," Elpida said in the statement.
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