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Share prices remain flat
Taiwan share prices closed flat yesterday as early gains driven by follow-through buying gave way to caution ahead of corporate earnings results, dealers said.
The weighted index closed down 1.58 points or 0.02 percent at 8,043.54, off a high of 8,096.84 and a low of 8,030.50, on turnover of NT$112.65 billion (US$3.40 billion).
The cement sector outperformed on the back of product price hikes, while technology stocks were hit by cautious sentiment before major companies report their first-quarter earnings.
First Taisec Securities (一銀證券) manager Stanley Hsu said turnover was still light as investors stayed on the sidelines.
"The Wall Street lead on Friday and the local stockmarket's gains on Saturday allowed the local bourse to extend its positive direction in early trade," he said. "But investors apparently favored the sidelines as they await earnings reports from US and local firms."

Taipei vacancy rate lower
The vacancy rate of Taipei City's Grade A office space was 12.8 percent for the first quarter of the year, improved from 14.6 percent in the previous quarter as ING Antai Life Insurance Co (安泰人壽) moved from non-Grade A buildings into Taipei 101, Jones Lang LaSalle Taiwan said yesterday.
Average monthly rents edged up marginally to NT$2,340 per ping on the back of increases by institutional landlords, the real estate agency said in a report. The rents are expected to increase at a much slower pace than most landlords are anticipating.
As a result of an oversupply, landlords of office buildings in Neihu District are likely to discount rents to attract tenants, the report said.
For the whole-year, Jones Lang LaSalle Taiwan forecast that rents will rise 6 percent to 10 percent.

Cosmos Bank downgraded
Taiwan Ratings Corp (中華信評), the local arm of Standard & Poor's Ratings Services, announced yesterday that it has downgraded ratings on Cosmos Bank (萬泰銀行), Taiwan's largest cash card issuer, for weakened financial profile.
Taiwan Ratings revised downward its long-term counterparty credit rating on Cosmos to "twA-3" from "twA-2" with outlook rating down to negative from stable in the meantime.
The downgrades reflect Cosmos' weakened capitalization following an unexpected surge in credit costs associated with unsecured consumer lending, Taiwan Ratings said.
The bank sold about NT$15 billion in impaired assets to asset management companies late last year, carrying forward losses over a 5-year period as allowed by regulation.

Asia-Pacific ad spending up
Last year, leading global, regional and local advertisers invested over US$83.5 billion in main media including television, newspapers and magazines across 12 key markets in the Asia-Pacific region, growing 15 percent from the previous year, according to a report released by The Nielsen Co yesterday. Among them, China, India and Indonesia recorded high double-digit growth at 22 percent, 23 percent and 17 percent respectively.
China, which invested US$47.7 billion in advertising last year, looks set to overtake Japan's position as the second-largest ad spending media market globally after the US within the next three years if China's double digit growth continues, the report said.
Taiwan, on the contrary, saw ad spending shrink by 3 percent last year to US$1.46 billion.

NT dollar closes weaker
The New Taiwan dollar weakened against the US dollar on the Taipei Foreign Exchange yesterday, down NT$0.048 to close the day at NT$33.154 on turnover of US$1.38 billion.


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