Officials cut the daily limit by which stocks may drop, pared interest rates to a record low and told securities firms to make it cheaper for investors to buy stocks in a package of measures introduced ahead of the reopening of financial markets today after a typhoon struck Taiwan.
Investors were sidelined yesterday when other Asian markets were reacting to the reopening of Wall Street.
Singapore and Hong Kong dropped; Japan rose 1.9 percent.
The Ministry of Finance said the daily limit stop-loss limit on stocks will be halved to 3.5 percent through Sept. 28. At the same time, securities firms will be directed to reduce their interest rates margin loans by up to 0.5 percent.
"We needed to include these two factors in our consideration," Minister of Finance Yen Ching-chang (
Taiwan's central bank today reduced its key interest rate half a percentage to 2.75 percent to boost investor confidence.
Yen said the NT$500 billion (US$14.5 billion) fund the government maintains to protect the stock market during emergencies that might undermine investor confidence won't be activated.
"I don't think we require the fund to enter the market," he told a press conference.
The current 7 percent limit on how much individual stocks may rise in a day won't be changed.
The government twice halved the stop-loss limit last year, once after the March 2000 presidential election and once after the key TAIEX index dropped below 5,000. The measures didn't keep the index from ending the year at 4,739.09. When it last traded on Friday, the index fell 4.5 percent to 3,774.62.
Yen said the directive for securities firms to lower their margin interest rates will reduce investor costs and expand trading.
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