Shares close lower
Shares closed 0.24 percent lower yesterday as investors took profits on four days of gains, dealers said.
At the same time, they said the losses were modest, suggesting that any selling will not be aggressive and so leave the market in consolidation mode after breaching the key 8,000 points level with some difficulty.
The TAIEX fell 19.43 points at 8,095.84, on turnover of NT$88.13 billion (US$2.67 billion).
Decliners led gainers 682 to 481, with 214 stocks unchanged.
Stocks boss at FTSE roundtable
A delegation led by Gordon Chen (陳樹), chairman of the Taiwan Stock Exchange, will attend a round table hosted by FTSE Group in London next week to introduce Taiwan's market reform measures, which could help facilitate the long-awaited market status upgrade in September, the Financial Supervisory Commission said yesterday. This is the nation's first-time participation in such event organized by the British market index compiler.
"The participation, at the invitation of David Hobbs who chairs FTSE's Country Classification Committee, allows us to communicate face-to-face with foreign investors and introduce our market reform efforts," the commission's secretary general Austin Chan (詹庭禎) said.
The introduction will focus on reforms in areas like relaxed block trading and margin trading systems and simplified foreign investors registration mechanism, the commission said.
The regulator said it hoped the move can encourage FTSE to upgrade Taiwan to the lineup of developed markets from current advanced emerging market status in its upcoming review in September.
Ministry solicits proxy votes
The Ministry of Finance decided to solicit proxy votes to win the management of China Development Financial Holding Co (中華開發金控) after negotiations with the holding firm's major private shareholder fell apart. China Development Financial is scheduled to hold a shareholder meeting on June 15.
As the Koo family's shareholding fails to meet the government's requirements, the ministry "cannot support the Koo family's claim to obtaining a controlling power," Minister of Finance Ho Chih-chin (何志欽) said during a press conference on Monday night.
Taiwan rated 18th in competitiveness
Taiwan was rated as the 18th most competitive country in the the latest World Competitiveness Yearbook published by the International Institute for Management Development (IMD), whereas China jumped three places to 15th, a news report said yesterday.
This is the first time that the nation has seen its competitiveness
outranked by China in the institutes ranking, the report said.
In terms of government efficiency, one of the four major categories
considered in the report, Taiwan was ranked 20th as compared to 23th last
year, while China saw its ranking climb to 8th place from 17th.
In the category of economic performance, Taiwan was ranked 16th this year
compared to 25th last year. China was ranked No. 2 this year and No. 3 last
year.
In the business efficiency category, Taiwan's ranking slid to 17th from
13th, whereas China surged to No. 1 from No. 27. As for infrastructure,
Taiwan's ranking fell to 21st from 18th, while China's rose to 28th from
33rd, Lausanne, Switzerland-based IMD said.
In the Asia Pacific region, Taiwan ranked fifth, trailing Singapore, Hong
Kong, Australia and China.
The top five most competitive countries in the world this year were the US,
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