Taiwan: Stocks flat; Hon Hai, TSMC edge up

[TAIPEI] Taiwan stocks were flat on Tuesday, with Hon Hai Precision Industry gaining after posting first-quarter sales growth and following a report that it has joined the fray to bid for Toshiba Corp's chip business.

The main TAIEX index was little changed at 9,879.65 points as of 0110 GMT, after closing at 9,882.54 in the previous session.

The electronics subindex edged down 0.1 per cent, while the financials subindex lost 0.2 per cent.

Hon Hai, a major supplier to Apple Inc, rose as much as 1.1 per cent, after Bloomberg reported on Monday that it may pay as much as US$27 billion Toshiba's chip unit.

South Korea's SK Hynix Inc and chipmaker Broadcom Ltd have submitted preliminary bids for the business, valued at US$17.98 billion or more, according to the report.

The world's top contract chip maker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) rose as much as 0.5 per cent after reporting on Monday a 14.9 per cent growth in first-quarter sales. Hon Hai's first-quarter sales grew 2 per cent.

The Taiwan dollar softened NT$0.038 to NT$30.690 per U.S. dollar.

REUTERS