Share prices dip
Share prices closed down 0.14 percent yesterday, tracking losses on regional bourses and on Wall Street, dealers said.
The TAIEX fell 11.06 points to 7,657.34 on turnover of NT$95.69 billion (US$2.95 billion).
Losers led advancers 1,731 to 793 with 194 stocks unchanged.
Besides the Wall Street lead, most investors chose to stay on the sidelines ahead of earning reports of major technology firms, said KGI Securities Co (凱基證券) trader Randy Chang (張修華).
“Taiwan shares actually pared some early losses, showing that there’s still buying demand,” he said, adding the market was likely to rebound today.
United Microelectronics Corp (聯電), fell 1.21 percent to NT$16.30 while Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) was 0.33 percent lower at NT$61.30.
Asustek shares soar
Shares of Asustek Computer Inc (華碩電腦) surged yesterday after the netbook computer pioneer on Monday night posted NT$6.497 billion in unaudited net profit in the third quarter, up 1.8 percent from NT$6.38 billion a year earlier.
The Taipei-based company said in a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange that its unconsolidated revenue in the third quarter was NT$67.057 billion.
That was up 47.9 percent from NT$45.345 billion in the previous quarter but down 4 percent from NT$69.816 billion a year earlier, previously released financial data showed.
ECFA might exclude agriculture
Taiwan and China might not include agricultural products on a list of items that will be subject to tariff concessions upon the signing of an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA), officials and experts said yesterday.
As Taiwan is concerned about the impact of opening to Chinese labor and agricultural products, Beijing is likely to respect Taipei’s requests that agricultural products be excluded from the list for tariff concessions, the officials said while attending an economic seminar in Chengdu, Sichuan Province.
Pang Chien-kuo (龐建國), a former adviser to the Straits Exchange Foundation and a professor at Chinese Culture University, said the proposed ECFA would not need to specify that Chinese agricultural products were barred from Taiwan, but merely exclude them from the list of items for which tariff concessions will be allowed.
Shanghai seeks NT dollar trade
Shanghai applied to Chinese regulators to start a trial program for the exchange of yuan and NT dollars to settle cross-border trade, a senior city official said on Sunday.
The trial may start soon, Fang Xinghai (方星海), director-general of Shanghai’s financial services office, said at the 6th China International Finance Forum in Shanghai. A transcript of Fang’s speech was posted on the Web portal Sina.com, the forum’s media partner.
Taiwanese companies invested about US$5 billion in Shanghai by the end of April, Fang said. Trade between the city and Taiwan amounted to US$13.7 billion in the first eight months of this year, he said.
NT dollar slips
The New Taiwan dollar fell against the US dollar, snapping two days of gains, on speculation overseas investors will pare investment in Taiwanese stocks.
The NT dollar fell NT$0.086, or 0.3 percent, to NT$32.480 at the 4pm close, Taipei Forex Inc said.
The US dollar advanced against eight of Asia’s 10 most-traded currencies outside Japan.
Overseas investors sold NT$4.7 billion more Taiwanese shares yesterday than they bought, stock exchange data showed.
MULTIFACETED: A task force has analyzed possible scenarios and created responses to assist domestic industries in dealing with US tariffs, the economics minister said The Executive Yuan is tomorrow to announce countermeasures to US President Donald Trump’s planned reciprocal tariffs, although the details of the plan would not be made public until Monday next week, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. The Cabinet established an economic and trade task force in November last year to deal with US trade and tariff related issues, Kuo told reporters outside the legislature in Taipei. The task force has been analyzing and evaluating all kinds of scenarios to identify suitable responses and determine how best to assist domestic industries in managing the effects of Trump’s tariffs, he
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
TIGHT-LIPPED: UMC said it had no merger plans at the moment, after Nikkei Asia reported that the firm and GlobalFoundries were considering restarting merger talks United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s No. 4 contract chipmaker, yesterday launched a new US$5 billion 12-inch chip factory in Singapore as part of its latest effort to diversify its manufacturing footprint amid growing geopolitical risks. The new factory, adjacent to UMC’s existing Singapore fab in the Pasir Res Wafer Fab Park, is scheduled to enter volume production next year, utilizing mature 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer process technologies, UMC said in a statement. The company plans to invest US$5 billion during the first phase of the new fab, which would have an installed capacity of 30,000 12-inch wafers per month, it said. The
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
RSS