TAIEX rises 1.9 percent
Share prices closed higher yesterday, with the TAIEX surging 141.65 points, or 1.9 percent, to close at 7,577.75
The bourse opened at 7,492.84 and fluctuated between a high of 7,620.56 and a low of 7,451.09. Market turnover totaled NT$103.27 billion (US$3.22 billion).
All eight major stock categories gained ground. Construction shares gained 3.6 percent, the most of any category, followed by foodstuff issues, which rose 3.5 percent.
Foreign investors and Chinese qualified domestic institutional investors bought a net NT$7 billion in shares.
Fubon eyes China leasing deal
Fubon Financial (富邦金) said yesterday it would set up a leasing company in China, in the first cross-strait corporate deal since Beijing and Taipei signed three financial agreements last year.
Fubon, the nation’s second-largest financial holding company, said it would join CITIC Group of China (中國中信), a major conglomerate, to form a 500 million yuan (US$73 million) leasing company in Beijing.
“Leasing business on the mainland is booming. We see great potential,” a spokeswoman said.
She said Fubon would take a 25 percent stake in the joint venture and CITIC would take 51 percent, while the rest would be held by other Chinese entities.
The joint venture is the first to be announced under the cross-strait financial memorandums of understanding signed in November.
Fubon Financial would invest 125 million yuan in the new company through its Fubon Venture Capital (富邦創投) unit, while CITIC would take its part through CITIC Asset Management (中信資產), the spokeswoman said.
Senao mulls China options
Senao International Co (神腦國際) is considering options for expansion in China and has yet to make a decision, the Taipei-based maker and distributor of communications electronics said in an exchange filing yesterday.
Senao plans a private placement of NT$10 billion to fund the purchase of a stake in Funtalk China Holdings Ltd (樂語中國), the Taipei-based, Chinese-languange Commercial Times reported yesterday, citing company chairman John Hsueh (薛紀建).
Bond sales should rise: S&P’s
Corporate bond sales will rise to pre-financial crisis levels as investors seek stable returns amid low interest rates, Standard & Poor’s said in a report yesterday.
“We expect Taiwan-based institutions to take advantage of the prevailing low interest rate to fund” themselves this year, S&P credit analysts said.
Taiwanese companies raised NT$173 billion from NT dollar bond sales last year, 35 percent less than the NT$265 billion they raised in 2008, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Firms have sold NT$20.1 billion of notes this year, the data show.
NT dollar rises
The New Taiwan dollar rose for a second day yesterday on expectations that investors would buy local assets as an economic recovery gathers pace.
“The Taiwan dollar should be up because the economy is stronger” than major economies, said George Pu, a fixed-income trader at President Securities Corp (統一證券) in Taipei.
The currency appreciated 0.1 percent to NT$32.048 against its US counterpart as of the 4pm close, compared with NT$32.085 late last week, Taipei Forex Inc said. The currency touched NT$32.012, the strongest level since Feb. 24.
The NT dollar, which has lost 0.1 percent this year, may trade between NT$31.50 and NT$32.50 this year “because the government doesn’t want the Taiwan dollar to be too volatile,” Pu said.
FALLING BEHIND: Samsung shares have declined more than 20 percent this year, as the world’s largest chipmaker struggles in key markets and plays catch-up to rival SK Hynix Samsung Electronics Co is laying off workers in Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand as part of a plan to reduce its global headcount by thousands of jobs, sources familiar with the situation said. The layoffs could affect about 10 percent of its workforces in those markets, although the numbers for each subsidiary might vary, said one of the sources, who asked not to be named because the matter is private. Job cuts are planned for other overseas subsidiaries and could reach 10 percent in certain markets, the source said. The South Korean company has about 147,000 in staff overseas, more than half
Taipei is today suspending its US$2.5 trillion stock market as Super Typhoon Krathon approaches Taiwan with strong winds and heavy rain. The nation is not conducting securities, currency or fixed-income trading, statements from its stock and currency exchanges said. Yesterday, schools and offices were closed in several cities and counties in southern and eastern Taiwan, including in the key industrial port city of Kaohsiung. Taiwan, which started canceling flights, ship sailings and some train services earlier this week, has wind and rain advisories in place for much of the island. It regularly experiences typhoons, and in July shut offices and schools as
An Indian factory producing iPhone components resumed work yesterday after a fire that halted production — the third blaze to disrupt Apple Inc’s local supply chain since the start of last year. Local industrial behemoth Tata Group’s plant in Tamil Nadu, which was shut down by the unexplained fire on Saturday, is a key linchpin of Apple’s nascent supply chain in the country. A spokesperson for subsidiary Tata Electronics Pvt yesterday said that the company would restart work in “many areas of the facility today.” “We’ve been working diligently since Saturday to support our team and to identify the cause of the fire,”
TECH PARTNERSHIP: The deal with Arizona-based Amkor would provide TSMC with advanced packing and test capacities, a requirement to serve US customers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is collaborating with Amkor Technology Inc to provide local advanced packaging and test capacities in Arizona to address customer requirements for geographical flexibility in chip manufacturing. As part of the agreement, TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, would contract turnkey advanced packaging and test services from Amkor at their planned facility in Peoria, Arizona, a joint statement released yesterday said. TSMC would leverage these services to support its customers, particularly those using TSMC’s advanced wafer fabrication facilities in Phoenix, Arizona, it said. The companies would jointly define the specific packaging technologies, such as TSMC’s Integrated
RSS