■ MSCI may grant full weighting
Morgan Stanley Capital Interna-tional Inc may allow Taiwan to be fully represented in its global stock benchmarks, which may mean more of the US$3 trillion in funds tracking its indexes will go to the nation's shares. Taiwanese stocks, which make up Asia's fifth-largest stock market, have about 55 percent of their market value represented in MSCI indexes. MSCI may increase Taiwan's representation in two steps -- to 75 percent in November and to 100 percent in May next year. A decision will be announced by June 18, the index provider said in a release yesterday. MSCI said in February that it was considering Taiwan's full-weighting after the government scrapped a limit in July on how much foreign investors can hold. After its full inclusion, Taiwan would become the largest country constituent in the MSCI Far East -- excluding the Japan Index -- surpassing South Korea's market, with a representation of 27.7 percent, according to Citigroup Inc. Taiwan currently has a 17.7 percent weighting, behind South Korea and Hong Kong.
■ Formosa Petro profits rise
Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) posted a pre-tax profit yesterday of NT$9.65 billion for the first quarter of the year, reaching 51.33 percent of the company's forecast for the year, a press released said yesterday. Formosa Petrochemical, a refinery unit of Formosa Plastics Group (台塑), reported revenues for the same period totaled NT$73.95 billion, the statement said, noting that the upturn was a result of the rising prices in oil amid the recovering world economy.
■ ProMOS in third-straight gain
ProMOS Technologies Inc (茂德科技), the nation's second-largest computer memory-chip maker, posted its third-straight quarter of profit after sales nearly doubled. The company's unaudited profit in the three-month period ended March 31 was NT$1.3 billion (US$39.3 million), compared with a NT$977 million loss in the same period a year earlier. Sales soared 92 percent to NT$9.6 billion.
■ Former CNFI chairman dies
Lin Kun-chung (林坤鐘), the 70-year old former chairman of the Chinese National Federation of Industries (CNFI, 工總), died on Wednesday due to complications from cardiac surgery. Lin founded the Sinogroup Corp (中日國際企業) in early 1960, as a major importer of corn and other animal feed. He served as chairman of the Taiwan Feed Industry Association (飼料工業同業公會) in the 1970s and was a legislator in 1980. He was also a national policy adviser to President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁). As CNFI chairman, Lin was the first business leader to lead a group on a visit to former Chinese President Jiang Zemin (江澤民).
■ China Shipbuilding posts profit
China Shipbuilding Corp (中船) continued to post profits in the first quarter of this year, with the figure for the quarter estimated to hit NT$160 million (US$4.85 million), the company said Wednesday. In a preliminary estimate, the just-privatized shipbuilder registered business turnover of NT$3.77 billion for the first three months of this year, reaching about 90 percent of the company's target for the period. However, the estimated profit of NT$160 million was 172.7 percent of the company's target, according to the company. The company registered net annual profits of NT$500 million last year, well above its target of NT$280 million for the year.
■ NT dollar loses ground
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