Shares edge lower
Taiwanese shares closed lower yesterday, with the TAIEX index falling 19.07 points, or 0.23 percent, to close at 8,337.82. The local bourse opened at a daily low of 8,290.38 and reached a high of 8,367.65.
A total of 5.1 billion shares changed hands on market turnover of NT$140.23 billion (US$4.41 billion). Foreign institutional investors and China’s qualified domestic institutional investors were net buyers of NT$3.39 billion in shares.
Losers outnumbered gainers 1,891 to 1,261, with 226 stocks remaining unchanged.
Wintek settles dispute
Taiwan-based Wintek Corp (勝華科技), the world’s largest touch-screen maker for mobile phones, said employees at its Chinese subsidiary would receive a Lunar New Year bonus following a strike last week.
Some employees at the United WinTechnology Ltd (蘇州聯建) in Suzhou, China, walked away from their machines on Friday amid rumors that the company would not pay a bonus, Wintek said in a statement yesterday.
Wintek said the strike had no impact on the company’s production, adding that it had settled the dispute and would distribute employee bonuses on Feb. 11. The amount of the bonus was not disclosed.
Tata wants restrictions eased
India’s largest information technology company said yesterday that it could service Taiwanese companies from China and that it would help reduce costs further if travel restrictions between Taiwan and China were eased.
“If we can make Taiwanese companies more cost effective by using our engineers in China and some here in Taiwan, then we can provide complete services,” said Girija Pande, chairman of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) Asia-Pacific operations. “We can provide Taiwanese customers with services between China and Taiwan, but that will require some level of movement between China and Taiwan for our staff.”
At the moment, restrictions on travel from China to Taiwan remain in effect.
“When the restrictions are eased, I think Indian IT companies can serve Taiwan from China,” he said.
DBS to focus on Asia
DBS Group Holdings Ltd chairman Koh Boon Hwee (許文輝) said Southeast Asia’s biggest lender would focus on expansion within Asia because there is “absolutely no value” to add from buying banks in the US and Europe.
“If we were there, we would be permanently sub-scale or even worse,” Koh said yesterday at a conference in Taiwan. “If pressure is applied to management to perform we will end up with the poorest credit in those countries and we will pay for it sometime down the road.”
DBS said last week it got approval to open a branch in Ho Chi Minh City and that it plans to increase its Indonesian outlets to 100 from about 40 over three years.
Fubon to raise NT$600m
Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控) said its banking unit plans to sell NT$600 million (US$19 million) in subordinated debentures.
The Taipei Fubon Commercial Bank (台北富邦銀行) will pay an annual interest rate of 2.3 percent on the debt, a company statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange said yesterday.
Proceeds would be used to raise the bank’s regulatory capital adequacy ratio and meet its medium to long-term funding needs, the statement said.
NT dollar gains ground
The New Taiwan dollar gained ground against the US dollar on the Taipei Foreign Exchange yesterday, closing up NT$0.038 at NT$31.79.
Turnover was US$640 million.
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