Healthy orders lift nation's major exporters on TAIEX

Stocks gained for the third day yesterday. Exporters such as Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd (中華映管) and AU Optronics Corp (友達光電) advanced after government figures showed overseas orders for the nation's products rose more than 10 percent for a sixth straight month last month.

Chinatrust Financial Holding Co (中信金控) and Taishin Financial Holdings Co (台新金控) declined after the government approved a proposal to adopt a stricter definition of bad loans.

The TAIEX gained 12.36, or 0.2 percent, to 5,857.87. Two stocks rose for every one that declined. The Taiwan futures index added 0.5 percent to 5,864.

AU Optronics, Taiwan's largest maker of flat-panel displays for personal computers, added NT$0.60, or 1.5 percent, to NT$40.10. Chunghwa Picture, a maker of flat-screen TVs, rose NT$0.50, or 3.6 percent, to NT$14.55.

"Consumer electronics such as liquid crystal displays TVs and digital cameras are very popular Christmas gift items," said Chang Yaw-tzong (張耀宗), statistics chief at the Ministry of Economic Affairs.

Chinatrust Financial, the nation's fourth-largest financial holding company, shed NT$0.60, or 1.7 percent, to NT$34.50.

Taishin Financial, Taiwan's eighth-largest financial company by market value, dropped NT$0.50, or 1.9 percent, to NT$25.40.

Lenders that fail to meet the 5 percent target for non-performing loans may have their branch network downsized or senior management demoted, the Bureau of Monetary Affairs said in the statement.

Quanta Display Inc (廣輝電子), the venture of Japan's Sharp Corp and Taiwan's Quanta Computer Inc (廣達電腦), rose NT$0.90, or 6 percent, to NT$15.90. It will spend NT$80 billion (US$2.3 billion) to build a flat-panel display plant in northern Taiwan, a Chinese-language newspaper reported. The new plant will start making computer and television screens in 2005, the report said.

Test-Rite International Co (特力), an importer and exporter of hand tools and bathroom fixtures, rose NT$0.30, or 1.4 percent, to NT$21.40. Test-Rite plans to sell a stake in its retail chain unit in Taiwan. Test-Rite plans to book NT$47 million in profit, it said in a statement.