TAIEX sets new seven-year high
Shares closed at a fresh seven-year high on Tuesday on follow-through interest, with investors encouraged by Wall Street's gains overnight on US merger news and upbeat corporate results.
Dealers said local investors believe that the bourse has room for further upside, with 10,000 points seen as the next realistic target for the benchmark index given the bullish outlook for both local and overseas stocks.
The TAIEX jumped 122.49 points or 1.27 percent at 9,744.06 on turnover of NT$284.71 billion (US$8.68 billion). The last time the index traded at the 10,000-point level was in April 2000.
Futures firms could branch out
Futures companies may soon be allowed to conduct securities brokerage and proprietary trading business, the Financial Supervisory Commission said yesterday.
Futures companies applying for permission to conduct securities and proprietary trading will need to set up a firewall mechanism to prevent risk to both operations, according to the draft amendment to the regulations on the establishment of securities houses released by the commission yesterday.
The regulator made public the amendments yesterday to solicit opinions from concerned parties this week before the drafted stipulations are to be finalized, it said.
President touts biotech parks
President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) said yesterday that the building of three biotechnology parks will establish a solid base for Taiwan's biotech development and help carve out new niches in the world's biotech industry.
Chen made the remarks while addressing the opening of the BioBusiness Asia expo in Taipei.
The president said governmental and private investment in the sector had increased to around NT$20 billion annually over the past five years from an initial base of around NT$1 billion annually.
As of the end of last year, the number of Taiwanese biotech and pharmaceutical companies had exceeded 1,100 and business turnover had reached NT$179 billion, which represents an average growth rate of around 13 percent over the past five years.
Everlight expected to grow
Taiwan Rating Corp (中華信評) yesterday gave Everlight Electronics Co (億光電子) "twA-/twA-2" corporate credit ratings, citing strong growth prospects. Everlight is the world's No. 7 manufacturer of light emitting diodes (LED).
Strong demand for new applications in liquid-crystal-display (LCD) backlights, auto lights and interior and exterior lighting will be major driving forces for Everlight, Taiwan Rating analyst Raymond Hsu (?M) said in a report released yesterday.
Obtaining legal use of patents from Munich-based OSRAM GmbH for white LEDs would help Everlight to attract more orders from customers by easing patent-infringement concerns, Hsu said.
Hsu expected Everlight to increase its global market share by 0.5 percent to 0.8 percent this year, from the current 4 percent.
Focus on local demand: ministry
The Ministry of Economic Affairs has asked local steel and petrochemical producers to prioritize satisfying domestic demand as part of its efforts to maintain price stability amid spiraling raw materials prices on the international market, a senior official said yesterday.
It was also one of the four major strategies mapped out at a brainstorming session held at the ministry on Monday.
The four major strategies included ensuring sufficient material supplies, preventing market rigging, assisting local businesses improve production processes and cut down production costs, and encouraging importers to pool shipments to reduce the cost of imports.
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