TAIEX remains unchanged
The TAIEX closed little changed yesterday, as many investors stayed on the sidelines, which kept turnover low amid lingering economic concerns, dealers said.
Interest in the high-tech sector was hampered by fears that a rising New Taiwan dollar will hurt Taiwan’s global competitiveness, while select “China concept stocks” — companies that have close business ties with China — appeared resilient on hopes of further stimulus measures by Beijing, dealers said.
The weighted index closed up 1.01 points, or 0.01 percent, at 7,465.41, on turnover of NT$52.79 billion (US$1.81 billion).
Taiwan No. 3 in productivity
Taiwan has posted the third-highest labor productivity figures in the services sector among Asian emerging markets, the Council for Economic Planning and Development said yesterday, citing the latest report from the Asian Development Bank.
The Manila-based bank said in the report that Asian emerging markets should diversify growth drivers into service industries to sustain domestic growth amid prolonged weakness in external demand.
Taiwan’s per capita labor productivity in the services sector has been standing at about US$45,000 a year, behind Hong Kong and Singapore, the third-highest level in the region, the council said, citing the report. The US$45,000 level is close to the average US$50,000 recorded by Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development countries, the council said.
China Steel profits from sale
China Steel Corp (中鋼) said yesterday it had made a NT$281.6 million (US$9.6 million) gain from selling shares in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電).
In a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange, China Steel said it sold 3.9 million TSMC shares at an average price of NT$86.26. The company sold the shares between Sept. 4 and Wednesday, according to the filing.
China Steel now holds 25.23 million TSMC shares.
Investors keen on Taiwan
The GRETAI Securities Market said on Wednesday foreign institutional investors held 15.5 percent of the outstanding shares on the local over-the-counter market as of the end of last month, up from between 10 percent and 11 percent last year.
According to GRETAI chairman Lee Sush-der (李述德), a growing number of foreign institutional investors have shown an interest in buying shares in Taiwan, which is expected to encourage more local companies to seek funds through share listings.
JPMorgan upbeat on TPK
JPMorgan Chase raised its target price on touch panel maker TPK Holding Co (宸鴻) on expectations that the company will benefit from orders from Apple Inc for its smaller tablet computer, the iPad Mini.
JPMorgan said in a note released on Tuesday it was also upbeat about TPK supplying touch panels for other electronics devices equipped with Microsoft Corp’s Windows 8 operating system.
JPMorgan upgraded its target price on TPK shares to NT$500 from NT$460, while maintaining an “overweight” rating on the stock. The brokerage also raised its forecasts of TPK’s earnings per share for this year and next year by 1 percent and 8 percent respectively, to NT$40.9 and NT$46.50.
NT dollar edges down
The New Taiwan dollar fell NT$0.023 to close at NT$29.269 against the US dollar yesterday, ending a four-session winning streak. Turnover totaled about US$757 million during the trading session.
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