Shares down slightly
Shares closed little changed yesterday as profit-taking eroded earlier gains made on the back of easing credit market worries in the US, dealers said.
The TAIEX closed down 2.20 points, or 0.02 percent, at 8,979.96 on turnover of NT$145.83 billion (US$4.42 billion).
Advancers led decliners 931 to 780, with 228 stocks unchanged.
Alex Huang (黃國偉), assistant vice president at Mega International Services Co (兆豐國際投顧), said that after seeing initial gains, investors moved to the sidelines, finding Wall Street's lead to be not strong enough to counter local technical pressure on the market.
He said investors earlier last month built their portfolios at higher costs, with the index at around 8,900 points or higher. Technical resistance has now gathered at around that level.
CPC to produce less oil
CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) plans to use 9.1 percentage points less of its crude processing capacity next year because of maintenance shutdowns.
The state-run refiner expects to process 603,000 barrels of crude oil a day next year, or 83.8 percent of its capacity, compared with an estimated 92.9 percent this year, according to the government's 2008 draft budget sent to lawmakers.
"We're planning some major maintenance shutdowns," CPC vice president Tsao Mihn (曹明) said by phone today. "We'll be tapping our stockpiles."
CPC will cut output of diesel, fuel oil and chemicals, according to the budget. The company has three refineries that have combined daily capacity to process 720,000 barrels of crude oil.
HSBC now hiring
HSBC Holdings Plc, Europe's largest bank, plans to add 40 to 50 jobs in wealth management in Taiwan in the next 12 months.
HSBC is recruiting bankers in Taiwan to reach a goal of managing 6 percent to 7 percent of the island's NT$4 trillion (US$121.2 billion) private wealth in three years, said Sanjiv Sud, the Taipei-based senior vice president for personal financial services.
"Our target is to exceed market growth rate in the mass affluent segment," Sud told reporters at a press conference in Taipei.
The number of the bank's Taiwanese clients who have at least NT$3 million in liquid assets grew 20 percent in the past year, he said.
Sud declined to disclose the bank's current market share.
No exposure, China says
China said yesterday that none of its US$1.33 trillion in foreign exchange reserves was invested in the teetering US subprime mortgage sector, underscoring China's earlier assertions that it had only limited exposure.
"We have no holdings of US subprime securities," Wei Benhua (魏本華), deputy head of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, told reporters on the sidelines of a forum.
China's towering forex reserves and current account surplus are now a key cog in the global economic wheel. Any damage there would inflame fears that the US mortgage crisis could threaten wider economic tumult.
Bonds up, NT dollar down
Government bonds rose and the currency fell on speculation that the monetary authority will stop raising rates after the Federal Reserve said it was ready to act to contain rising mortgage defaults.
The price for the 10-year benchmark bond climbed 0.4555, or NT$455.5 per NT$100,000 face amount, to 94.9814. The yield declined 5.6 basis points, or 0.056 percentage points, to 2.472 percent.
The New Taiwan dollar dropped NT$0.011 to close at NT$33.007 per US dollar in light trading. Turnover was US$610 million on the Taipei Forex Inc.
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