TAIEX down 3.25%
Shares closed 3.25 percent lower yesterday amid deepening concerns that the current financial turmoil could lead to a severe global recession, dealers said. The weighted index fell 170.29 points to 5,075.97 on turnover of NT$28.65 billion (US$884.26 billion). Decliners outnumbered gainers 1,401 to 181, while 246 stocks were unchanged.
A total of 512 shares were limit-down, against 49 limit-ups.
Financials fell 3.37 percent, electronics dropped 3.32 percent, foods was down 3.29 percent and constructions edged down 1.71 percent.
“As international markets plunged to reflect the growing concerns about the economic downturn, today’s sharp fall at the domestic market was not surprising at all,” said Vickie Hsieh (謝雯霞) of President Securities (統一證券).
The narrowed limit-down on shares originally designed by the government to minimise the impact of the global crisis on the domestic stock market turned out to be a disaster, analysts said.
Accounting draft completed
The Financial Supervisory Commission yesterday said that it had come up with a draft revision to bring national accounting standards in line with changes in international accounting standards. The changes will allow domestic companies not to mark part of their assets to the market.
The revision will be made public today after the Accounting Research and Development Foundation completes the revision, the commission’s chief secretary Lu Ting-chieh (盧廷劼) told a media briefing yesterday.
Under the revision, domestic companies won’t have to report their outstanding losses from “tradable assets” including shares and bonds with a maturity, excluding derivatives, “in the third quarter” if they decide not to liquidate them immediately, Lu said.
The question of whether the revision will be extended in the fourth quarter of this year will be decided later, pending on the future economic and financial development, he said.
Mega unveils US investments
Mega International Commercial Bank Co (兆豐國際商銀), a unit of Taiwan’s fourth-biggest financial group, has NT$9 billion in investments tied to Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc, Merrill Lynch & Co and American International Group Inc.
Mega International has made provisions for the investments, the lender said in an e-mailed statement yesterday. The bank’s parent is Taipei-based Mega Financial Holding Co (兆豐金控).
China tightens supervision
China’s banking watchdog ordered financial institutions yesterday to tighten supervision of credit in the face of the global economic turmoil, state media reported.
The China Banking Regulatory Commission issued new instructions designed to stem the flow of funds into the stock and property markets, Xinhua news agency said.
It ordered banks and other financial players to strengthen credit management and make sure staff did not embezzle funds for investment in the stock market.
NT dollar falls to record
The New Taiwan dollar “is relatively stable,” the central bank said in a faxed statement after the currency fell to a one year low.
The local currency weakened NT$0.137, or 0.42 percent, to close at NT$32.537 against the US dollar yesterday, the Taipei Forex Inc said. The NT dollar earlier dropped as much as 0.6 percent to NT$32.602.
South Korea’s won and Singapore’s dollar posted steeper declines yesterday, the central bank said in the statement.
Shares of contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) came under pressure yesterday after a report that Apple Inc is looking to shift some orders from the Taiwanese company to Intel Corp. TSMC shares fell NT$55, or 2.4 percent, to close at NT$2,235 on the local main board, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. Despite the losses, TSMC is expected to continue to benefit from sound fundamentals, as it maintains a lead over its peers in high-end process development, analysts said. “The selling was a knee-jerk reaction to an Intel-Apple report over the weekend,” Mega International Investment Services Corp (兆豐國際投顧) analyst Alex Huang
TRANSITION: With the closure, the company would reorganize its Taiwanese unit to a sales and service-focused model, Bridgestone said Bridgestone Corp yesterday announced it would cease manufacturing operations at its tire plant in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), affecting more than 500 workers. Bridgestone Taiwan Co (台灣普利司通) said in a statement that the decision was based on the Tokyo-based tire maker’s adjustments to its global operational strategy and long-term market development considerations. The Taiwanese unit would be reorganized as part of the closure, effective yesterday, and all related production activities would be concluded, the statement said. Under the plan, Bridgestone would continue to deepen its presence in the Taiwanese market, while transitioning to a sales and service-focused business model, it added. The Hsinchu
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has approved a capital budget of US$31.28 billion for production expansion to meet long-term development needs during the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. The company’s board meeting yesterday approved the capital appropriation plan for purposes such as the installation of advanced technology capacity and fab construction, the world’s largest contract chipmaker said in a statement. At an earnings conference last month, TSMC forecast that its capital expenditure for this year would be at the higher end of the US$52 billion to US$56 billion range it forecast in January in response to robust demand for 5G, AI and
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) investment project in Arizona has progressed better than expected, but it still faces challenges such as water and labor shortages, National Development Council (NDC) Minister Yeh Chun-hsien (葉俊顯) said yesterday. Speaking with reporters after visiting TSMC’s Arizona hub and attending the SelectUSA Investment Summit in Maryland last week, Yeh said TSMC’s Arizona site turned a profit of NT$16.14 billion (US$514 million) last year in its first full year of mass production. “TSMC told me it was surprised by the smooth trial run of the first fab, which has left the company optimistic about the project’s outlook,”
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