TAIEX posts moderate gain
The TAIEX opened higher yesterday, bolstered by the strength in overseas markets and held on to a modest gain at the close of trading. However, construction and property stocks remained under pressure because of the government’s tighter measure to curb soaring property prices, dealers said.
The index rose 46.03 points, or 0.53 percent, to close at 8,738.37 on turnover of NT$138.16 billion (US$4.71 billion).
A total of 2,022 stocks closed up, 2,352 finished down and 482 remained unchanged, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
Qisda posts flat sales
Electronics contract maker Qisda Corp (佳世達) yesterday reported that consolidated revenue last month reached NT$5.62 billion, flat year-on-year, but down 31 percent from January.
The monthly decline was attributed to fewer working days because of the Lunar New Year holiday, it said in a statement.
Qisda also said fourth-quarter profit rose more than 50 percent to NT$670 million, or earnings per share of NT$0.35. Sales advanced 5.6 percent to NT$24.2 billion.
First-quarter shipments of LCD monitors are projected to decline 5 percent sequentially to 4 million units, while those of projectors could rise about 8 percent to 260,000 units, it said.
Foxconn transforming base
Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) is set to transform its factories in southern China into an “engineering base,” while moving about 200,000 jobs to central areas of the country, the Financial Times reported yesterday.
“We will make Shenzhen an engineering campus where we do pilot production only,” Louis Woo (胡國輝), special assistant to group chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘), was quoted by the paper as saying.
Foxconn employs about 1 million workers in China, about half of them based in Shenzhen.
After the planned changes, Foxconn’s work force in Shenzhen would eventually drop below 300,000, the report cited Woo as saying.
China developing 4G system
China may soon launch a domestically developed “fourth-generation” (4G) mobile phone system for the commercial market, state media reported yesterday, citing leading carrier China Mobile Ltd (中國移動通信).
The homegrown candidate for the 4G standard, known as TD-LTE, is being tested in seven cities and will go into commercial use “when the technology is mature,” China Daily cited China Mobile chairman Wang Jianzhou (王建宙) as saying. He did not provide any timetable.
China Mobile, the world’s largest mobile phone operator with 589.3 million subscribers, has developed a Chinese 3G standard called TD-SCDMA. Wang said Apple Inc’s Steve Jobs was interested in developing LTE iPhones.
Ford probing worker abuse
Ford Motor Co was yesterday looking into a graphic report by a human rights group alleging abuse of workers at a Chinese factory.
The accusations came in a report by the Institute for Global Labor and Human Rights entitled Dirty Parts: Where Lost Fingers Come Cheap, with a picture on the cover of a mangled hand missing three fingers.
The report accuses Yuwei Plastics and Hardware Product Co in Dongguan of paying its workers US$0.80 per hour and of making them work 14-hour shifts, seven days a week, making auto parts sold to Ford.
Yuan sends NT dollar higher
Pushed by a stronger yuan, the New Taiwan dollar finished NT$0.08 higher against the US dollar yesterday, closing at NT$29.462 on turnover of US$1.098 billion, Taipei Foreign Exchange data showed.
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