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■ Stocks increase slightly
Stocks rose slightly yesterday as small gains in the electronics and tourism sectors were mostly offset by declines in steel and financial stocks. The TAIEX gained 8.36 points, or 0.1 percent, to 6,083.62 in dealings valued at NT$70.32 billion (US$2.13 billion). Advancers outnumbered decliners 535 to 459, while 187 issues ended the day unchanged. "Companies have finished reporting third-quarter earnings and October revenue, so there's not much news to push the market in the near term," said Solomon Chang, a trader at Yuanta-Core Pacific Securities (元大京華證券).

■ CSC chairman changes
Chiang Yao-chung (江耀宗), the new China Steel Corp (CSC, 中鋼) chairman, yesterday formally took over the chairmanship from Lin Wen-yuan (林文淵) at an extraordinary meeting of the CSC's board of directors. Chiang, formerly chairman of China Airlines Ltd (華航), also replaced CSC president Chen Cheng-jung (陳振榮) with former vice president Chen Yuan-cheng (陳源成) in a further adjustment of the company's lineup. Lin resigned last month to dispel controversy surrounding the stock bonus he received as chief executive officer. Lin received a stock bonus worth more than NT$40 million but has promised to donate all of his CSC stock bonuses to charity.

■ Chang Hwa write-offs double
Chang Hwa Commercial Bank (彰化銀行), the nation's seventh-largest bank by assets, said it plans to more than double bad-loan write-offs before the end of this year to help its return to profitability. The bank will write off NT$36.4 billion (US$1.1 billion) of bad debt to take this year's total to NT$58.4 billion, Chang Hwa executive vice president Hsieh Chao-nan (謝昭南) said yesterday. "After the write-off, we'll have a clean balance sheet and we'll return to normal profitability next year,'' Hsieh said. For the first nine months of the year, Chang Hwa posted a net loss of NT$11.4 billion after writing off NT$18.5 billion in bad loans for the first half. That compares with a net income of NT$884 million a year earlier. Chang Hwa's overdue loan ratio is set to fall below 2 percent by the end of this year from 5 percent, Hsieh said.

■ More flights to Japan
China Airlines Ltd (CAL, 華航), the nation's leading carrier, is offering 16 chartered passenger flights between Japanese cities and Hualien this month, a CAL spokesman said yesterday. The flights were to transport some 1,200 Japanese tourists from Hiroshima, Toyama and Kumamoto to Hualien between Sunday and next Tuesday, the spokesman said. "These flights are incentive trips organized by Asahi group," he said. CAL were to offer six flights between Hualien and Hiroshima, eight between Hualien and Kuma-moto and two between Hualien and Toyama, he added.

■ NT dollar up for fourth day
The New Taiwan dollar rose for the fourth day after global investors bought the most stock in almost nine months, boosting demand for the currency. The NT dollar rose NT$0.078 against its US counterpart to close at NT$33.395 on the Taipei foreign exchange market. Turnover was US$888 million. The NT dollar had its longest rally since March as the benchmark TAIEX index completed a four-day gain. Overseas fund managers on Friday bought a net NT$15 billion (US$449 million) in stock, the most since Feb. 25, according to stock exchange figures. Foreign investors bought a net NT$11 billion of Taiwanese shares yesterday.

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