Tue, Jun 02, 2009 page11

• Business Briefs

  • STAFF WRITER, WITH AGENCIES
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  Profit-taking limits TAIEX

  Share prices closed up 0.92 percent yesterday as profit-taking eroded gains made earlier in the day on the back of a rally last week on Wall Street, dealers said.

  The TAIEX rose 63.66 points to 6,954.10 on turnover of NT$201.85 billion (US$6.23 billion).

  The market opened up more than 2 percent, pushing the index briefly past the key 7,000-point level, but the gains were quickly offset by profit-taking, dealers said.

  Selling focused on select bellwether electronic stocks after they had recently posted significant gains, they said.

  “Resistance at the 7,000-point level has been very strong. Today’s fluctuations were no surprise,” Taiwan International Securities (金鼎證券) analyst Arch Shih (施博元) said.

  The market has risen more than 33 percent over the past two months, on confidence about improving cross-strait ties.

  Shih said the market could consolidate for some time before passing the 7,000-point mark for good.

  “We have to watch closely how foreign institutional investors will pocket recent strong gains to decide how long the consolidation will be,” he said.

  Among microchip designers, PixArt Imaging fell 6.92 percent to 316, while MediaTek rose 1.75 percent to 407.

  “The electronic sector is due to report May sales results soon. Investors are likely to keep cautious about high-tech stocks over the next few sessions,” Shih said.

  CLSA upgrades forecast

  Hong Kong-based brokerage CLSA Ltd raised its GDP forecast for Taiwan this year to a contraction of 9.3 percent, up from a previously estimated 11 percent contraction, on warming cross-strait trade ties, the Chinese-language Commercial Times said yesterday.

  Albeit the most pessimistic about the nation’s economy, CLSA was the first foreign securities brokerage to revise upward its GDP forecast for Taiwan, the newspaper said.

  CLSA also revised upward its forecast for Taiwan’s economy’s next year to a contraction of 1.3 percent, up from a 5.4 percent contraction, the report said.

  Airline surcharges to rise

  China Airlines (中華航空), EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空) and other Taiwanese airlines can raise their fuel surcharges by as much as 25 percent as jet kerosene prices rise.

  Levies on long-haul flights, including Australia and New Zealand, will go up by US$6.50 per passenger to US$32.50 and surcharges on short-haul trips will rise US$2.50 to US$12.50, the Civil Aeronautics Administration said in a statement on its Web site yesterday.

  The changes will take effect on June 15, the agency said.

  Walsun sale stalls

  The bid to liquidate Walsun Insurance Co (華山產險) failed because no bidder met the qualification review, the semi-official Taiwan Insurance Institute (保險事業發展中心) said in a statement yesterday.

  The institute said it would continue to help liquidate the insurer’s assets and look for buyers.

  The Financial Supervisory Commission order Walsun — known as Tai Ping Insurance Co (太平產險) before 2007 — to cease operations in January after it fail to raise new capital as required by law.

  Chip sales rose in April

  Global semiconductor sales rose 6.4 percent in April from the previous month as demand for chips used in PCs increased, the Semiconductor Industry Association said yesterday.

  Total sales climbed to US$15.6 billion in April from US$14.7 billion in March, the association said.

  Gartner Inc predicted last week that worldwide chip sales would drop 22 percent this year to US$198 billion. On Feb. 25, Gartner forecast a 24 percent decline for this year.
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