TAIEX snaps four-day streak
The stock market yesterday snapped a four-day winning streak to close 0.79 percent lower, a day after the TAIEX index reached 8,121.78, its highest since Jan. 24.
The weighted index fell 64.18 points to close at 8,057.6 following overnight losses on Wall Street.
The local bourse opened at 8,106 and fluctuated between 8,149.68 and 8,038.37 during the day’s trading. Market turnover totaled NT$146.57 billion (US$4.63 billion).
Inotera eyes syndicated loan
Inotera Memories Inc (華亞科技), the nation’s second-largest memory-chip maker, expects to sign a NT$35 billion (US$1.1 billion) syndicated loan to fund equipment purchases within six weeks.
Mega International Commercial Bank (兆豐國際商銀) will lead the syndicate for the five-year loan, which will carry an interest rate “in line” with the company’s average cost of debt of about 2 percent, Kai Strohbecke, vice president of finance at the Taoyuan-based chipmaker, said in a phone interview yesterday, without providing the exact figure.
He didn’t name the other banks or say how many are involved.
Inotera is raising money to fund an estimated NT$52 billion of equipment purchases this year as it upgrades factories to 50-nanometer technology amid a rebound in the market for memory chips used in computers. The company in February raised NT$14.4 billion in a rights offering, Strohbecke said.
Chipbond share sale approved
Chipbond Technology Corp’s (頎邦科技) board approved a plan to sell up to 50 million shares in a private placement, the Hsinchu-based company said in an exchange filing yesterday.
Chipbond is the nation’s largest LCD driver chip packaging and testing firm. It plans to use the proceeds to expand production, increase working capital and invite a strategic partner, according to the statement.
UMC revenues shoot up
United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s second-largest contract chipmaker, said yesterday its revenue more than doubled to NT$9.48 billion last month from NT$4.54 billion a year earlier.
UMC said in a statement its first-quarter revenue also more than doubled to NT$26.72 billion from NT$10.84 billion a year earlier, but fell 3.7 percent from NT$27.75 billion in the previous quarter.
Fubon Financial income rises
Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控), the nation’s second-largest listed financial-services company, reported first-quarter net income of NT$5.87 billion, or NT$0.72 per share, it said in an exchange filing yesterday, citing unaudited figures.
The company posted net income of NT$2.24 billion in the same period a year earlier.
Lite-On’s March revenue up
Local electronic component maker Lite-On Technology Corp (光寶科技) yesterday reported a consolidated revenue of NT$10.76 billion for last month, up 26 percent month-on-month and 46 percent year-on-year, hitting a record monthly high.
Lite-On attributed the growth to the company’s ongoing market share expansion, coupled with rising demand, according to a company statement.
In the first quarter, its consolidated revenue totaled NT$28.7 billion, up 47 percent from a year ago and representing the best quarterly result in six quarters, the statement said.
NT dollar inches lower
The NT dollar lost ground against the US dollar on the Taipei Foreign Exchange yesterday, declining NT$0.073 to close at NT$31.701. Turnover was US$886 million.
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