High-tech sector boosts TAIEX
The TAIEX yesterday closed above the 7,800-point mark as the high-tech sector rebounded on the further depreciation of the New Taiwan dollar, dealers said.
The weighted index closed up 87.33 points, or 1.13 percent, on turnover of NT$74.73 billion (US$2.52 billion).
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s top contract chipmaker, attracted buying on optimism that a weakening NT dollar will improve their sales, dealers said. Its shares rallied 1.71 percent to NT$101.
Chunghwa Telecom income drops
Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信), Taiwan’s largest telecoms operator, yesterday forecast that revenue would drop 1.1 percent to NT$217.82 billion this year from unaudited consolidated revenue of NT$215.36 billion last year.
That would be a result of reduced revenue from a property developing subsidiary, decline in voice revenue following National Communications Commission-mandated tariff reductions and a mobile interconnection rate reduction.
This year, Chunghwa Telecom planned to allocate NT$37.15 billion for capital spending on broadband deployment, mobile Internet expansion and increasing cloud-computing services. The spending would increase by NT$3.89 billion from last year’s NT$33.26 billion.
Hotel launches bird’s nest soup
Ambassador Hotel Ltd (國賓大飯店), which runs three hotels in Taiwan, yesterday launched sales of its self-branded instant bird’s nest soup.
This is the first time a hotel in Taiwan has produced a self-branded bird’s nest soup, the company said in a statement.
Ambassador chief operating officer Frank Lin (林興國) said the company’s plant is able to produce a total of 500,000 units of soup per year.
The company targeted sales of 100,000 units for the first year, and plans to raise its target on a yearly basis, he said.
Goodone Co Ltd (如一) — a sister company of Ambassador that belongs to the Shihlin Development Co Ltd (士林開發) — will be the exclusive distributor of the soup.
Motech reduces losses
Local solar cell maker Motech Industries Inc (茂迪) posted losses of NT$1.07 billion for the final quarter of last year, down from the third quarter’s losses of NT$1.76 billion.
That brought total losses for the year to NT$5.07 billion, almost double the NT$2.46 billion in losses in 2011, according to a financial statement filed with the Taiwan Stock Exchange on Monday.
Revenue plummeted 47.1 percent to NT$14.91 billion last year, from NT$28.19 billion in 2011.
Motech said it planned to raise up to US$130 million by issuing convertible corporate bonds to purchase raw materials from overseas.
NT dollar gains ground
The New Taiwan dollar rose against the US dollar yesterday, gaining NT$0.001 to close at NT$29.559 after intervention by the central bank, dealers said.
Turnover totaled US$1.118 billion.
The rising NT dollar came as traders took cues from a rebound of the South Korean won, which added 1.74 percent against the US dollar on Monday from the previous session, the dealers said.
A strong rebound staged by the local bourse also placed some downward pressure on the US dollar, particularly in the afternoon session, they said.
The dealers said that as long as regional counterparts, especially the won, resume a downward pattern, the NT dollar is expected to weaken again on the back of the central bank’s intervention, the dealers said.
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