TAIEX closes down
Shares closed 1.05 percent lower yesterday as early gains driven by Wall Street's overnight advance gave way to profit-taking, dealers said.
Old economy stocks took the hardest hit, while the heavyweight technology sector continued to be weighed down by uncertainties ahead of corporate results, they said.
The TAIEX lost 84.25 points at 7,959.29, on turnover of NT$132.08 billion (US$4.0 billion).
Declines led gains 1,023 to 189, with 131 stocks unchanged.
Microsoft offers Office trials
Microsoft Corp, the world's largest software maker, said it would offer free trials of the new Office 2007 program in Taiwan to encourage consumers to buy legal copies.
Starting yesterday, eight computer makers sold laptops with legal versions of Office usable for 60 days, Kevin Lee, product marketing manager of Microsoft Taiwan, said in a press conference in Taipei today.
Five percent of trial users will probably buy the software after the trial expires, Lee said.
The Redmond, Washington-based company generates "almost no money" from the 2.2 million PCs sold in Taiwan annually, said Davis Tsai (蔡恩全), head of Microsoft's operations in Taiwan.
CPC raises gas price
State-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) announced yesterday it would raise wholesale gasoline prices by NT$0.5 per liter and diesel prices by NT$0.4 per liter to reflect rising crude oil prices. The new rates went into effective at 12am this morning.
Adjusted retail prices for 98-octane unleaded gasoline is NT$29 per liter; NT$27.50 for 95-octane unleaded gasoline, NT$26.80 for 92-octane unleaded gasoline and NT$24 for top-grade diesel oil, the company said in a statement released on its Web site yesterday.
Smaller rival Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said later last night that it would raise its prices to match CPC Taiwan's, effective 2am today.
Shanghai stock deals probed
The Shanghai stock exchange investigated 280 "suspect transactions" last year, nearly twice the figure from 2005, the bourse said in a statement yesterday.
"Suspect transactions" refer to trades where malpractice such as price manipulation and insider dealings are suspected, the statement said.
An earlier statement said it investigated 147 similar cases in 2005.
Board directors protest
The Ministry of Finance said yesterday that nearly half of state-appointed board directors would quit to protest a new regulation demanding disclosure of assets.
Up to 40 percent of some 40 state-appointed board directors and supervisors in state-controlled enterprises have given verbal vows to resign in opposition to the regulation, a ministry official said on condition of anonymity.
The regulation stipulates that board directors who are not in the capacity of civil servants but represent government holdings must make public the details of their assets.
NT dollar drops
The New Taiwan dollar dropped to the lowest in five months on speculation investors are selling the currency to buy higher-yielding assets abroad.
The NT dollar dropped down NT$0.007 to close at NT$33.161 against the US dollar on the Taipei Forex Inc. It weakened to as low as NT$33.211, a level last seen on Nov. 2.
Traders have pushed NT dollar down 1.8 percent this year as they borrowed the local currency to invest elsewhere.
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