Zeev: Here is a story on TSMC that says it all:
Taiwan state fund to sell TSMC <2330.TW> ADRs-paper
TAIPEI, Nov 27 (Reuters) - Taiwan's state stock stabilisation fund plans to sell 130 million shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co in the form of American Depository Receipts, or ADRs, a local newspaper said on Tuesday.
The firm is the world's largest contract chipmaker.
The mass circulation Economic Daily News quoted an unnamed finance ministry official as saying the state fund has applied to TSMC for the ADR sales in a bid to partially recoup past stock market losses.
One ADR is equivalent to five TSMC common shares.
Another ministry official declined to confirm the report, but said, "if the report were wrong, the state would have issued a statement correcting it." The government issued no denial.
The report follows the ministry's announcement on Monday that the state stabilisation fund planned to sell ADRs of United Microelectronics Corp (UMC) <2303.TW>, TSMC's rival, to partially recoup past stock market losses.
On Tuesday, shares of TSMC rose 2.03 percent to close at T$75.50 after raising on Monday its 2001 pretax profit forecast by 55 percent to T$9.35 billion, outperforming a 0.61 percent retreat in the main TAIEX <.TWII> index.
TSMC's ADR <TSM.N> jumped 5.73 percent on Monday.
The T$500-billion state stock stabilisation fund, which supports the stock market from "financial disorder", had T$41.7 billion in unrealised losses as of mid-August, the state statistics agency said in August.
The fund, which began operations after presidential elections in March last year, is usually activated on an ad-hoc basis when major non-economic events, such as sabre-rattling by political rival China, stir volatility in Taiwan's financial markets.
(US$=T$34.5)
02:16 11-27-01 |
