Share prices slip
Share prices closed lower yesterday, with the TAIEX falling 14.45 points, or 0.17 percent, to close at 8,309.37.
The bourse opened at 8,343.73 and traded between 8,356.97 and 8,262.58 during the session.
A total of 5.25 billion shares changed hands on market turnover of NT$147.14 billion (US$4.63 billion).
Losers outnumbered gainers 1,698 to 1,379, with 282 remaining unchanged.
Acer wins Gold Tech Award
Acer Inc’s (宏碁) desktop Aspire RevoR3600 yesterday bagged the top award at the 2009 Gold Tech Awards — an annual ceremony organized by Cite Media Holding Group (城邦媒體) magazines including PC Home.
Apple Inc’s iPhone 3GS, retailed by Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信), as well as a mouse from Leader Media Development Inc (利德開發), won the best design and best innovation categories.
The awards are aimed at providing consumers with a list of the most popular and most innovative tech gadgets of the year, the organizer said. The magazines’ editors and a panel judges from the tech industry chose the winners.
In the “popularity” category, which allowed Internet users to vote, Gigabyte Technology Co (技嘉科技) won with its hybrid Booktop M1022x model.
Chinatrust reports profit drop
Chinatrust Financial Holding Co (中信金控), Taiwan’s fourth-largest listed financial services company by market value, said profit last year fell 77.3 percent after it increased provisions.
Net income fell to NT$3.34 billion, or NT$0.25 per share, the Taipei-based company said in an exchange filing, revising an earlier report yesterday of net income of NT$3.93 billion. The company posted net income of NT$14.7 billion, or NT$1.51 a share, in 2008.
Chinatrust said the drop in profit last year was a result of the global financial crisis, lower interest rates and increased provisions.
Chunghwa buys bonds
Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) bought a total of NT$1.48 billion in corporate bonds, the Taipei-based company said in three exchange filings yesterday.
Chunghwa bought NT$617 million in Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) bonds, NT$406 million in Yuanta Securities Finance Co (元大證金) bonds and NT$459 million in Taiwan Power Co (台電) bonds, it said.
Fubon Bank raising funds
Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控) said on Monday its banking unit would issue NT$2.25 billion in seven-year and NT$2.4 billion in 10-year subordinated debentures for long-term funding.
Taipei Fubon Commercial Bank (台北富邦銀行) will also use the proceeds to improve its capital adequacy ratio, Fubon Financial said in a statement.
The coupon for the seven-year subordinated debentures is 2.2 percent and 2.5 percent for the 10-year debentures, it said.
US trade deficit up 9.7 percent
The US trade deficit rose to the highest level in 10 months as an improving economy helped demand for imports. However, exports rose as well, boosted by a weaker dollar, supporting the view that US manufacturers will be helped by a rebounding global economy.
The Commerce Department reported yesterday that the trade deficit jumped 9.7 percent to US$36.4 billion in November, a bigger imbalance than the US$34.5 billion deficit economists had forecast.
Exports rose 0.9 percent, the seventh consecutive gain, as demand was up for US-made autos, farm products and industrial machinery. Imports rose at a much faster 2.6 percent, led by a 7.3 percent rise in petroleum imports.
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Chizuko Kimura has become the first female sushi chef in the world to win a Michelin star, fulfilling a promise she made to her dying husband to continue his legacy. The 54-year-old Japanese chef regained the Michelin star her late husband, Shunei Kimura, won three years ago for their Sushi Shunei restaurant in Paris. For Shunei Kimura, the star was a dream come true. However, the joy was short-lived. He died from cancer just three months later in June 2022. He was 65. The following year, the restaurant in the heart of Montmartre lost its star rating. Chizuko Kimura insisted that the new star is still down
While China’s leaders use their economic and political might to fight US President Donald Trump’s trade war “to the end,” its army of social media soldiers are embarking on a more humorous campaign online. Trump’s tariff blitz has seen Washington and Beijing impose eye-watering duties on imports from the other, fanning a standoff between the economic superpowers that has sparked global recession fears and sent markets into a tailspin. Trump says his policy is a response to years of being “ripped off” by other countries and aims to bring manufacturing to the US, forcing companies to employ US workers. However, China’s online warriors
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