■ Shares largely unchanged
Shares closed little changed yesterday as early gains made on the back of Wall Street's record overnight performance gave way to late profit taking, dealers said.
They said trade was thin, reflecting caution ahead of the year-end break.
The TAIEX slipped 0.25 points at 7,732.93, on turnover of NT$91.13 billion (US$2.79 billion).
Decliners outnumbered gainers 746 to 427, with 188 stocks unchanged.
Samson Chueh (闕山雄), an assistant vice president with Fuhwa Securities Corp (復華證券), said investors were reluctant to take any aggressive positions as the year-end approaches.
Given the market's recent gains, investors were opting to take profits whenever possible, he said.
■ Lite-On plans purchase
Lite-On IT Corp (建興) announced yesterday that it plans to buy a 49-percent stake in Philips and BenQ Digital Solutions Corp (飛利浦明基儲存科技) from BenQ Corp (明基) for NT$260 million to expand its market share.
Lite-On expects to complete the deal in March, the company said in a statement after the board approved the investment proposal.
The board also gave the go-ahead to purchase Royal Philips' optical disc drive unit for around 40 million euros (US$52.5 million). The optical disc drive unit of Royal Philips makes storage devices for automobiles.
■ Restrictions won't be lifted
Because the local naphtha cracking industry still has room for development, the Ministry of Economic Affairs will not review its investment restrictions on similar facilities in China, Minister Steve Chen (陳瑞隆) said yesterday.
Chen was responding to reports yesterday that Taiwan's petrochemical industry, led by USI Corp (台聚), was aggressively exploring the possibility of setting up a naphtha cracker in Sichuan Province, and that the Petrochemical Industry Association of Taiwan was approaching Sichuan authorities for possible negotiations on the bid.
Chen said that the local petrochemical industry's priority should be to upgrade the Chinese Petroleum Corp's (中油) third naphtha cracker in order to consolidate southern Taiwan's international competitive edge in the industry, followed by the renovation of the nation's fifth naphtha cracker.
For the time being, Chen said, the petrochemical industry should focus on eliminating contamination during the production process, improving workplace safety and developing products with higher added value rather than relocating operations to China.
■ Investment in China up
Total investment in China by Taiwanese companies reached an historic high this year after the Investment Commission under the Ministry of Economic Affairs approved 21 new investments on Wednesday.
The commission released figures showing that total business investment in China by Taiwanese this year surpassed US$7.5 billion, higher than the US$6.94 billion for last year and the totals of any other previous years.
The US$7.5 billion includes US$1.13 billion from 21 new investments submitted by various leading local industrial companies.
■ NT dollar strengthens
The NT dollar turned strong against its US counterpart yesterday ahead of the central bank's monetary policy meeting.
The NT dollar rose NT$0.039 to close at NT$32.660 on the Taipei Forex Inc, on turnover of US$780 million.
After the forex market closed, the central bank announced that it would lift its benchmark interest rate by 0.125 percentage points to 2.75 percent. This is the bank's 10th straight increase.
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