■ Sharemarket unchanged
Share prices closed little changed yesterday, with investors waiting to see what the fallout will be from North Korea's missile tests, dealers said.
They said investors were additionally cautious after Wall Street's losses overnight and a spike in oil prices to record highs.
The TAIEX slipped 0.89 points to 6,659.07, off a low of 6,608.49, on turnover of NT$68.54 billion (US$2.12 billion).
Acer Inc was limit-up 7 percent at NT$58.30 on expectations that the PC vendor should benefit from a seasonally stronger second half, when demand is likely to get an extra boost from Intel Corp's decision to cut chip prices.
Risers led decliners 496 to 403, with 145 stocks unchanged.
■ Taiwan Salt fined
The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) announced yesterday that Taiwan Salt Industrial Corp (台鹽) will be fined NT$780,000 (US$24,000) for spreading rumors against products of other companies.
The company will be punished for making false claims against products of other companies at a news conference on May 14, 2004, the commission said.
According to the FTC officials, a lengthy FTC investigation found that Taiwan Salt personnel made unfounded claims at the news conference two years ago, alleging that products made by the other companies might contain illegal ingredients and that some of them were even produced with salt for industrial use from India, Thailand and China.
But the claims were found to be untrue by the FTC, they said.
■ Futures exchange has new head
The Cabinet announced late last night that former vice premier Wu Rong-i (吳榮義) would replace Sam Wang (王得山) as chairman of Taiwan Futures Exchange, while Wang would retire from politics.
Wu became vice premier on Feb. 18 last year at the invitation of then-premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷). He resigned from that position in late January this year after a Cabinet reshuffle.
Wu was in the public spotlight recently after his abrupt resignation from the position of independent board director of Mega Financial Holding Co (兆豐金控), a move that helped the government take control over the financial service provider during a boardroom fight.
Cabinet Spokesman Cheng Wen-tsang (鄭文燦) strongly denied speculation that Wu's new appointment was a reward in exchange for his earlier resignation from Mega Financial, CNA reported.
The Cabinet also announced that Wang Chung-kai (王中愷), head of the futures exchange's clearance committee, would replace Ho Fu-hsiung (何富雄) as the exchange's new president.
■ Outflow continues
Taiwan continued to register a net outflow of foreign remittances last month, with foreign investors remitting a net US$1.77 billion in equity funds out of the country during the month, according to figures re-leased yesterday by the Financial Supervisory Commission.
Taiwan saw the end of a six-month record of net inflows of remittances in May when foreign investors remitted a net amount of just US$77 million out of the country.
Since the government began allowing foreign investment in Taiwan's stock market in December 1990, foreign institutional investors, foreign individuals and overseas Chinese have remitted net US$119.72 billion into Taiwan as of June 30.
■ NT dollar down again
The New Taiwan dollar slid for a second day against its US counterpart, down NT$0.069 to close at NT$32.459 on the Taipei foreign exchange market. Turnover for the day reached US$690 million.
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