TAIEX falls more than 3%
The TAIEX was hit hard yesterday by concerns over the global economy and investors apparent shock at a US Federal Reserve warning about downside risks to economic fundamentals, dealers said.
In addition, Moody’s downgrade of the credit ratings of three top US banks — Citigroup, Wells Fargo and Bank of America — gave rise to fears among investors that the global banking sector could become mired in the eurozone debt crisis, dealers said.
“All of sudden, a big group of market bears emerged to dictate the direction of the index throughout the trade,” Concord Securities (康和證券) analyst Kerry Huang said. “Sentiment has turned terribly sour.”
The weighted index closed down 230.38 points, or 3.06 percent at 7,305.50, after moving between 7,287.76 and 7,419.49 on turnover of NT$111.509 billion (US$3.67 billion).
King Yuan to buy back shares
King Yuan Electronics Co Ltd (京元電子), a local chip packaging and testing company, plans to buy back 20 million of its shares, or 1.57 percent of outstanding stock, on the open market, the company said in a stock exchange statement yesterday.
The company said the share buyback would begin today and run through Nov. 22. King Yuan plans to repurchase the shares at between NT$7.60 and NT$16.57 a share, the statement showed.
Shares in King Yuan ended 3.12 percent lower at NT$10.85 on the TAIEX yesterday.
Taiwan retains FTSE status
Taiwan maintained its “advanced emerging market” status on Tuesday in the FTSE country--classification annual review.
However, the FTSE once again placed Taiwan on the list of candidates for possible promotion to the “developed market” category.
The FTSE has a four-tier system — developed market, advanced emerging market, secondary emerging market and frontier market — in its country classification.
All countries on the list of possible promotions will be reviewed again in September next year.
Farglory authorizes land buys
The board of Farglory Land Development Co (遠雄建設) has authorized its chairman Chao Teng-hsiung (趙藤雄) to spend as much as NT$7.5 billion on purchases of land in Taipei City and New Taipei City, the company said in a statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday.
Fubon Life buys Tenfu shares
Fubon Life Insurance Co (富邦人壽), a subsidiary of Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控), bought 20 million shares in Tenfu (Cayman) Holdings Co (天福[開曼]控股) at HK$6 each in an initial public offering, Fubon Financial said in a statement yesterday.
Chimei market share increases
Chimei Innolux Corp (奇美電子), a major LCD maker, saw its global market share pass the 10 percent threshold last month after it started to provide panels for Apple’s iPad, according to Seoul-based Displaybank.
The report said Chimei’s market share for tablet computer panels reached 11 percent last month, showing that the company had become a major global supplier.
Displaybank said that Chimei’s market share for tablet computer panels started to rise when it began to provide 9.7-inch panels for Apple’s iPad.
The panel for Apple’s iPad used to be supplied by Samsung Electronics Co and LG Display Co. Chimei has gradually stepped up supply since June.
AU Optronics Corp (友達光電) has focused on 10.1-inch panels for Android tablet computers. Its market share has been stable at 10 percent.
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