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■ Regional markets gain
Shares ended higher along with regional markets yesterday following solid gains on Wall Street overnight. The TAIEX rose 25.10 points, or 0.4 percent, to 5,747.09, but closed the week down 2.4 percent. Advancers outstripped decliners 474 to 348, while 186 stocks finished the session unchanged on turnover of NT$64.46 billion (US$2.04 billion). The Dow Jones Industrial Average posted its best point gain in more than two years overnight, rising 206.24 points, or 2.1 percent. The NASDAQ composite index gained 2.5 percent and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index advanced 2.8 percent. The electronics subindex closed 0.5 percent higher. Powerchip Semiconductor Corp (力晶半導體), Taiwan's largest maker of dynamic random access memory chips, rose 0.2 percent to NT$22.0 after falling 14 percent in the past five sessions. Shares in Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), one of the world's largest contract electronics makers, rose 3.9 percent to NT$145.5 on heavy buying by foreign investors, analysts said.

■ Cathay to issue REIT
Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控), Taiwan's biggest financial services company, said it plans to issue its first real estate investment trust, or REIT, this year with a fund of more than NT$10 billion (US$318 million), Lee Chang-ken (李長庚), executive vice president of Cathay Financial. He declined to give details. Fubon Securities Co (富邦證券), the brokerage arm of Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控), said on Jan. 27 investor demand for Taiwan's first investment property trust had exceeded the NT$5.83 billion worth of shares on offer. Fubon Securities said it will use the proceeds to buy three properties held by companies controlled by the Tsai Wan-tsai (蔡萬才) family, Fubon's owner.

■ Sony expects growth
Sony Corp expects its orders for Taiwan electronic products to grow "steadily" this year, said Kenji Sakai, chairman and managing director of Sony Taiwan Ltd, while unveiling the Sony Fair 2005 at Taipei 101 on Thursday. Sakai declined to disclose how large the figure would be. The Japanese consumer electronics giant said last year that its electronics orders with Taiwanese suppliers would jump at a double-digit rate every year. Sony last year sourced about US$6 billion of components from Taiwanese suppliers.

■ NT dollar has large gain
The New Taiwan dollar had its biggest weekly gain in seven on the outlook for exports and on speculation companies that derive their earnings from abroad accelerated conversion of dollars. The NT dollar rose NT$0.038 to close at NT$31.503 against its US counterpart on the foreign exchange market. Turnover was US$632 million. The currency may strengthen to NT$29 by the end of this year, said Ichiro Ikeda, vice president of the global currency and commodity group at JPMorgan Chase Bank in Tokyo. A gain in the currency was limited after foreign investors were net sellers of the island's equities for the ninth straight day through today. Such investors sold a net US$722 million of stocks this week, the biggest weekly sales since the five days to March 25, according to the stock exchange. "There is at least no indication sales by foreign investors will come to an end anytime soon, capping the currency's topside," said Osamu Takashima, chief analyst of the foreign exchange and treasury division in Tokyo at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi Ltd. The NT dollar may weaken to NT$31.75 next week, he said.

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