BenQ shares hit 10-yr low on insider trade probe

Taipei, Mar 14: Shares of Taiwan's top mobile phone vendor BenQ Corp. fell by its daily 6.79 percent limit to a 10-year low on Wednesday, after prosecutors said they were investigating the firm for suspected insider trading.

By 0333 GMT, BenQ shares had dropped 6.79 percent to T.05, underperforming a 1.68 percent fall on the broader electronics sub-index and a 1.58 percent decline on the benchmark TAIEX index.

''This news is a big hit for BenQ and going forward things will be challenging. Fundamentally, we still have not seen strong improvement in the firm and it is really too bad,'' said CLSA analyst Vincent Chen.

Taiwan prosecutors said on Tuesday the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC), the island's top financial regulator, believed the firm may have sold shares before it announced its losses after it failed to turn around the loss-making handset unit it bought from Germany's Siemens in late 2005.

In late October, BenQ posted a July-September loss of T.22 billion (US1 million), its fourth straight quarterly loss that was twice as big as market expectations.

Reuters>