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TAIEX gains almost 200 points

Taiwan share prices closed up 2.44 percent yesterday, encouraged by Wall Street's rally on Friday, dealers said.

The TAIEX closed up 194.04 points at 8,135.48 on turnover of NT$81.94 billion (US$2.52 billion).

Risers led decliners 1,557 to 432, with 443 stocks unchanged.

Investors were also cheered by news that the Labor Pension Fund's supervisory committee has assigned 12 institutions to manage US$30 billion in agency funds destined for investment in local stocks, dealers said.

On the foreign exchange market, the New Taiwan dollar closed the day's trading at NT$32.498 against its US counterpart, declining NT$0.013 from Friday's close. Turnover was US$724 million on the Taiwan Forex Inc.

Treasury bills auctioned

The central bank yesterday auctioned NT$28 billion (US$861.6 million) in 273-day treasury bills at a yield of 2.320 percent, a central bank statement showed.

The bills, sold on behalf of the Ministry of Finance, will begin issuing today and mature on Sept. 23, next year, it said. The auction received NT$49.265 billion in total bidding, or 1.76 times of the offer amount, it said.

Fuel-making plant closed

Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) shut a gasoline-producing unit at Mailiao Township (麥寮) in Miaoli County last Wednesday because of a mechanical fault.

The closure of the 84,000 barrel-a-day plant, known as a residual fluid catalytic cracker, may last as long as a week, Lin Keh-yen (林克彥), a director at the refiner, said by telephone yesterday.

The unit converts heavier refined products such as residual fuel into higher-valued products including gasoline. Mailiao-based Formosa Petrochemical operates two such facilities. The refiner is tapping into inventories following the closure.

Bank sets price for China fund

Morgan Stanley and China's sovereign wealth fund yesterday confirmed that the US investment bank has set a reference price for the sale of a stake to the fund, according to media reports.

China Investment Corp agreed last week to invest about US$5 billion in Morgan Stanley securities, convertible into a stake of up to 9.9 percent in 2010 at a price of no more than 1.2 times the reference price.

Spokesmen for both Morgan Stanley and China Investment Corp yesterday confirmed a report by China's Xinhua news agency that the reference price would be between US$48.07 and US$57.684, Dow Jones Newswires reported.

Both officials spoke on customary condition of anonymity.

Cathay Pacific confirms letter

Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd said yesterday it had received a formal letter of complaint from EU regulators investigating allegations of price fixing in the air cargo business.

The EU and the US have been investigating more than a dozen airlines since at least early last year to discover if there was collusion in the air cargo industry to fix prices on surcharges for fuel, security and insurance.

The European Commission said on Friday that it had sent out Statement of Objections to a number of airlines, but did not name them.

Singapore's prices rise

Singapore's consumer prices rose a faster-than-expected 4.2 percent last month, underpinned by higher costs for food and housing, the government said yesterday. That was higher than the 3.6 percent increase in October.

Last month, the index gained 0.6 percent in seasonally adjusted terms. In unadjusted terms, the consumer price index rose 0.6 percent last month from October.
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