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■ Shares drop 0.41 percent
Shares closed down 0.41 percent yesterday, giving up early gains after a lackluster Wall Street performance overnight gave investors no clear lead, dealers said.
The TAIEX shed 32.65 points at 7,845.17, on turnover of NT$127.01 billion (US$3.84 billion).
Decliners outnumbered gainers 742 to 403, with 161 stocks unchanged.
On the foreign exchange market, the New Taiwan dollar weakened as it tracked the yen, which dropped 0.7 percent in the past five days, dealers said.
The NT dollar declined NT$0.02 to close at NT$33.076 against the US currency, Taipei Forex said.

■ BenQ to sell AUO shares
BenQ Corp (明基), the nation's largest maker of branded consumer electronics, said it plans to sell 100 million shares, or about 1.3 percent, of AU Optronics Corp (友達光電) to increase its cash flow.
BenQ announced the sale in a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday. The company expects an estimated investment gain of NT$4.5 billion (US$136 million) from the sale, to be conducted in a block trade after the market's close, spokesman David Wang (王淡如) said.
BenQ did not have a timetable for the disposal, which will cut its shareholding in AU Optronics to 8.42 percent from 9.7 percent, Wang said.

■ Chunghwa refuses to move HQ
Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信), the nation's biggest telecom operator, said yesterday it did not have any plan to move the company's headquarters southwards, as requested by its union representatives.
The telephone company's comment came after its labor union decided to push for the relocation of the headquarters, aiming to boost the development of the telecom industry in the remote areas.
Chunghwa said it would force the company to incur significant increase in costs and extra spending on the move.
The labor union's assertion contrasts with the views of other state-run company employees, who strongly oppose the government's intention to move their offices to the south.

■ Bad loan ratio continues climb
The average bad loan ratio of 41 local banks continued to rise for two consecutive months to 2.38 percent last month, up 0.1 percentage points from a month earlier, the Financial Supervisory Commission said yesterday.
Coverage ratio used to gauge the sufficiency of bad debts reserves dropped to 53.30 percent from 55.21 percent over the same period, the data showed.
Bad debts ratio of cash card lending climbed 1.58 percentage points month-on-month to 7.74 percent last month, due to a decrease of NT$4.2 billion in total lending balance and a rise of NT$2.4 billion in defaulted loans balance.
That of credit card lending nudged up to 2.36 percent, up 0.09 percentage points in January, data showed.

■ Unilever to shut plant
Consumer product giant Unilever said yesterday it will shut one of its two plants in Taiwan and move the production lines to other facilities in the region.
The closure of the plant in Taoyuan will be completed by the end of this year, a Unilever Taiwan spokesman said, adding the move will affect 130 local jobs.
Production would be shifted to Unilever's units in China and southeast Asian countries, including Vietnam, the spokesman said.
The Hsinchu plant, with 100 employees, would continue operations, he added.
Unilever entered the Taiwan market in 1984, manufacturing a wide range of goods, including detergent, skin care and food products.

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