Government funds help TAIEX close slightly higher

Shares ended slightly higher yesterday on suspected buying by government funds.

The TAIEX finished up 21.91 points, or 0.4 percent, at 5,389.93 in dealings valued at NT$45.50 billion (US$1.3 billion). Advancing issues outnumbered decliners 347 to 269, while 291 ended the day unchanged.

Most analysts had expected the bourse to fall after US share indexes declined overnight and the price of oil hit new highs.

But dealers said low activity made it easy for the government to influence the bourse's direction. Average daily turnover on the Taiwan bourse is usually around NT$80 billion to NT$100 billion, but can be far higher on days of steep gains or losses.

Of the major sub-indexes, financials rose 0.9 percent, transportation added 1.5 per-cent, food rose 0.9 percent, plastics rose 0.5 percent and technology issues advanced 0.1 percent.

Evergreen Marine Corp (長榮海運), one of the largest oceangoing cargo shippers in Asia, gained 2.2 percent to NT$27.6 on rising cargo rates. The com-pany's main rival in Taiwan, Yang Ming Marine Transport Corp (陽明海運), finished 1.5 percent higher. Financial holding companies also rose. Taishin Financial Corp (台新金控) added 2.6 percent to NT$23.3 and China Development Financial Holding Co (中華開發金控) rose 1 percent to NT$15.10.

Memory chipmakers declined in line with the selling prices of the chips they make. Powerchip Semiconductor Corp (力晶半導體), Taiwan's largest computer memory chipmaker, fell 0.5 percent to NT$20.50, while ProMOS Technologies Inc (茂德科技) declined 2 percent to NT$12.55.