Taiwan stocks at 1-week low; Acer, BenQ, AU slide
(Adds hot stocks, details)
By Faith Hung
TAIPEI, March 28 (Reuters) - Taiwan shares ended down 0.73 percent at a one-week low on Wednesday, as Acer (2353.TW) paced a slide in technology stocks after bigger rival Hewlett-Packard (HPQ.N) said it had sued the Taiwan computer maker for patent infringement.
The main TAIEX share index fell 57.03 points to 7,788.14, a level not seen since March 21.
The heavily weighted electronics sub-index .TELI fell 1.03 percent and the financial sub-index .TFNI dropped 0.76 percent.
"Some investors were worried the suit would cast shadows on the outlook" for Acer, the world's No. 4 PC vendor, said George Hsieh, who manages T$8.5 billion (US$258 million) for Capital Investment Trust.
Trading reached T$104.4 billion (US$3.16 billion), easing from T$127.0 billion in the previous session.
The fund manager expected the main index to trade in a narrow range next week, due to concerns over a slowing U.S. economy.
"We have not seen rallies in U.S. stocks lately, capping the possibility for any big gains in Taiwan shares. Besides, heavy technical pressure (for Taiwan shares) is mounting near the 7,900 level," Hsieh said.
Acer shares finished 0.47 percent lower after HP on Tuesday filed the lawsuit against the company. (Click [nN27231990] for details)
Acer told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday that it aimed to surpass Lenovo (0992.HK) this year to grab the No. 3 ranking.
(For story details, click [nTP144068])
HOT STOCKS
-- AU Optronics Corp. (2409.TW) (AUO.N), the world's No. 3 flat display panel maker, fell 2.84 percent. BenQ Corp. (2352.TW) slid 3.38 percent after the mobile phone vendor said it would sell 100 million shares it owns in AU to help bring it back to profitability. (Click [nTP170654] for story details)
-- Fubon Financial (2881.TW), Taiwan's No. 5 financial holding firm, erased early gains and closed 0.85 percent lower.
Its Hong Kong arm, Fubon Bank (Hong Kong) Ltd. (0636.HK), told Reuters it expected Taiwan firms operating in China to contribute 10-15 percent to its 2007 net profit.
-- ProMOS Technologies (5387.TWO), Taiwan's No.3 DRAM memory chip maker, finished 1.24 percent lower.
ProMOS said it would raise its original capital spending plan by up to one-third this year amid strong chip demand. (Click [nPEK163696] for story details)
For a table of foreign trading in Taiwan stocks, double-click on [nTP170358].
--------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------- Move on day -0.73 percent Close on day 7,788.14 2007 intraday high 7,999.42 2007 intraday low 7,306.07 All time high 12,682.41 12 FEB 1990 --------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------- (US$1=T$33.0) ((Reporting by Faith Hung, editing by Anne Marie Roantree; Reuters Messaging: faith.hung.reuters.com@reuters.net; +886 2 2508-0815)) ASIA-PACIFIC STOCK MARKETS: Pan-Asia......[STXNEWS/AS] Japan........[.T] S.Korea....[.KS] S.E. Asia............[.SO] Hong Kong...[.HK] Taiwan.....[.TW] Australia/NZ.........[.AX] India.......[.BO] China......[.SS] OTHER MARKETS: Wall Street...........[.N] Gold.........[GOL/] Currency..[FRX/] Eurostocks...........[.EU] Oil...........[O/R] JP bonds...[JP/] ADR Report..........[ADR/] LME metals..[MET/L] US bonds...[US/] Stocks News US...[STXNEWS/US] Stocks News Europe...[STXNEWS/EU] DIARIES & DATA: IPO diary & data <TW/IPOMENU> Asia earnings diary [ASIA/EQTY] U.S. earnings diary [RESF/US] European diary [WEU/EQTY] Taiwan diary [TW/DIARY] Wall Street Week Ahead [.N/O] Eurostocks Week Ahead [.EU/O] World forecasts EQUITYPOLL1 TOP NEWS: For top Asian company news, double click on: [nTOPEQA] U.S. company news [TOP/EQU] European company news [TOP/EQE] Forex news [TOP/FRX] Global Economy news [TOP/MACRO] Technology news [TOP/TECH] Telecoms news [TOP/TELCO] Media news [TOP/MEDIA] Banking news [TOP/FIN] Politics/General news [TOP/G] Asia Macro data ASIATODAY Keywords: MARKETS TAIWAN STOCKS . Keywords: MARKETS TAIWAN STOCKS (C) Reuters 2007. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution ofReuters content, including by caching, framing or similar means, is expresslyprohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters and the Reuterssphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group ofcompanies around the world.nTP174930.TW
