TAIEX closes down
The TAIEX closed 0.42 percent lower yesterday after an overnight fall on Wall Street amid concerns over the health of European banks, dealers said.
The TAIEX fell 33.09 points to 7,851.31, after moving between 7,824.65 and 7,898.76, on turnover of NT$112.76 billion (US$3.53 billion).
The market opened down 0.23 percent after Wall Street fell 1.03 percent, and selling increased as investors witnessed other regional markets suffering losses on fears that more-than-expected risky debt held by the European banking system will trigger another financial meltdown, the dealers said.
A total of 2,519 stocks closed down and 1,174 were up, with 320 remaining unchanged.
Formosa to restart unit soon
Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) plans to restart within two days a residue processing unit that was shut on Thursday last week at its Mailiao refining complex.
A suspected flaw in piping design at the No. 1 residue desulfurization unit is being corrected, spokesman Lin Keh-yen (林克彥) said by telephone yesterday.
The company halted its No. 2 residue desulfurization unit after a fire on July 25. Each of the plants can process 80,500 barrels a day.
Separately, state-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) has shut a fuel-oil producing unit at its Taoyuan refinery for maintenance, a company official said.
The residue desulfurization unit was shut on Wednesday last week, said the official, who declined to be identified. The stoppage will last 45 days, he said.
Master’s grads unimpressive
More than half of local enterprises found the capability of master’s graduates not as impressive as that of their counterparts with bachelor’s degrees in the workplace due to a lack of stability and teamwork, the latest report by 104 Job Bank said.
Of the 1,266 employers polled between July 20 and July 28, nearly 45 percent said that there were no major differences in work performance between bachelor’s graduates and master’s graduates, with 12 percent regarding those with four-year degrees as performing better at work.
The survey showed that 51 percent of enterprises found master’s graduates generally lacked stability and the ability to work as part of a team, while 23 percent said university graduates are more aggressive.
The Taipei-based online manpower agency, however, said that master’s graduates had the advantages of professionalism, language proficiency and independent thinking, which are favored by employers, according to the report.
Galaxy available in China
Samsung Electronics Co will sell its Galaxy S smartphone in China through the country’s three largest mobile-phone carriers.
The phone will be offered by China Telecom Corp (中國電信), China Mobile Ltd (中國移動) and China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd (中國聯通), Samsung said in a statement yesterday. Sales will begin with China Telecom this month, followed by the other two companies later this year, the company said in a separate statement.
The three mobile-phone operators collectively had 785.5 million subscribers on June 30, according to the companies. Samsung is pushing the Galaxy S smartphone to challenge Apple Inc and narrow the gap with leader Nokia OJY.
The company sold 3 million units of the Galaxy S globally, the statement said.
NT dollar rises on greenback
The New Taiwan dollar rose against the US dollar yesterday, up NT$0.037 to close at NT$31.979.
Turnover totaled US$594 million during the trading session.
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