TAIEX flirts with 7,500 points
The TAIEX ended higher yesterday as buying rotated to select large-cap high-tech stocks, but gains were limited by strong technical resistance ahead of the 7,500-point mark, dealers said.
The foodstuffs sector also attracted interest amid rising international food prices because of an ongoing drought in North America, while the financial sector suffered losses as investors pocketed the gains they had built up in recent sessions, dealers said.
The weighted index closed up 42.95 points, or 0.58 percent, at 7,479.25, after moving between 7,447.03 and 7,520.65, on turnover of NT$80.21 billion (US$2.68 billion).
Arima shares fall on jobs news
Shares of Arima Communications Corp (華冠通訊) fell yesterday after Motorola Mobility announced plans to cut 20 percent of its workforce, stirring up fears that the smartphone vendor would cut orders to the Taiwanese maker, dealers said.
Local media reported that because of Motorola Mobility’s plan to downsize, Arima is likely to lose orders for four of the US vendor’s smartphone models in the second half of this year.
Arima ended down 1.53 percent at NT$12.85.
In the first quarter of this year, Arima posted a net loss of NT$57.91 million, or a loss per share of NT$0.14. Analysts expected Arima to suffer a loss per share of between NT$0.7 and NT$0.8 for the whole of this year after taking into account Motorola Mobility’s downsizing plan.
Bank of Taiwan enters Shanghai
The state-owned Bank of Taiwan (台銀) yesterday opened a branch in Shanghai to serve Taiwanese businesspeople in the fast-growing city, the lender said in a statement.
The lender, the banking arm of Taiwan Financial Holding Co (台灣金控), is widely expected to provide New Taiwan dollar settlement services once China and Taiwan work out a currency settlement mechanism.
TAITRA hosts sporting seminar
The Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA, 外貿協會) said yesterday that it would sponsor a seminar on Tuesday next week to help Taiwanese businesses tap into commercial opportunities created by two major sporting events in Brazil in the next four years.
Brazil will host the World Cup in 2014 and the Summer Olympics in 2016, making it the first country in South America to sponsor the Olympics and the fourth country to win the right to host the two major sports extravaganzas consecutively.
According to Brazil’s Ministry of Sports, the government will spend about US$20 billion to stage the World Cup. The money will be invested in match venues, transportation infrastructure, airports and harbors, ICT software and hardware and safety monitoring systems.
The country will spend an additional US$14.4 billion to host the Summer Games.
TSMC to go on buying spree
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s top contract chipmaker, yesterday said the company’s board had approved a capital appropriation plan to spend NT$71.75 billion to expand and upgrade its advanced technology capacity and another NT$11.29 billion to expand an existing factory building and install new systems.
In July, TSMC said it would retain its full-year capital spending at a record US$8.5 billion, mostly to ramp up production of 28nm chips, with part of the investment to be spent on developing 20nm chips.
NT dollar builds momentum
The NT dollar gained ground against the US dollar yesterday, adding NT$0.04 to close at NT$29.965.
Turnover totaled US$517 million during the trading session.
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