Taiwan stocks ended down 0.05 percent on Friday, but top contract chip maker TSMC led technology shares higher after it sold US $2.56 billion worth of shares on behalf of Philips in US trading at a premium. Bucking the gain, Chinatrust and other banking stocks were lower on news the firm was asked by the top financial regulator to sell its entire stake in Mega.
The main TAIEX share index dipped 3.82 points to 8,034.14, ending the week with a mere 0.04 percent gain. The financial sub-index sank 0.54 percent, while the electronics sub-index rose 0.18 percent, helped by a 1.18 percent rise in TSMC stocks.
Trading was T$87.04 billion (US $2.61 billion), its busiest in one week, rising from T$84.38 billion on Thursday. "The premium beat market expectations, suggesting investors are confident about prospects of TSMC and most other tech firms before the Christmas shopping season kicks in," said Chris Wang, who manages T$2 billion ($60 million) for Paradigm Asset Management.
Dutch electronics firm Philips raised US $2.56 billion after its sale of 240 million of TSMC's Ad's were priced at US $10.68 per share, or a 5 percent premium to Thursday's closing price. Chinatrust Financial, Taiwan's top credits card issuer, fell 0.75 percent. Taiwan's Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) said on Friday the company must dispose its full stake in state-run Mega estimated at US $800 million after its plan to acquire Mega failed.
Megan closed unchanged after sinking 0.2 percent during the trading. Tighten Financial, Taiwan's No 2 financial holding firm by assets, was 0.61 percent higher. Taiwan's top financial regulators said on Thursday it would suspend issuance of new credit cards by the banking arm of Tighten for leaking account details of some clients.