Business Briefs

Shares rise on funding report

Taiwanese shares rose sharply yesterday after the Chinese-language Commercial Times daily reported that four government funds would invest NT$300 billion (US$9.23 billion) in the local market this year.

The Weighted Price Index of the Taiwan Stock Exchange gained 109.33 points, or 1.3 percent, to close at 8,506.28, its highest level since Dec. 11. It has gained 8.7 percent over the course of the year.

Yesterday's rise was led by food companies, with the subindex for the sector up 3.8 percent. The subindex for the electronics sector rose a strong 3.7 percent.

Wei Chuan Foods (味全食品) climbed by the 7 percent daily limit to NT$18.45 on hopes of strong sales in China.

MediaTek (聯發科) rose 4.6 percent to NT$421 after the chip designer approved a smaller-than-expected allocation of 25 percent of net profit for employee bonuses for this year.

The market is closed today.

Mega chairman calls it quits

Mega Financial Holding Co (兆豐金控) chairman Cheng Shen-chih (鄭深池) yesterday said he wanted to resign from the nation's third-largest financial company by assets for personal reasons.

"I have completed my duties [at Mega] and would like to move on to other career plans," Cheng said in his written statement, without elaborating.

He said he done his best during the six years and six months he had led the state-run Chiao Tung Bank (交通銀行), which was later merged with Mega Financial.

His resignation is effective Jan. 15, the statement added.

Mega Financial's largest shareholder is the Ministry of Finance, which will nominate a new chairman who will be approved at a board meeting on the same day, Mega Financial spokesman Simon Cheng (曾垂記) said.

HK optimistic, Taiwan not

Hong Kongers are more optimistic about this year than anyone else in Asia, with Taiwanese and Indonesians the most gloomy, a new survey released yesterday said.

The survey by research firm TNS and Gallup International found that 71 percent of Hong Kong residents think 2008 will be a better year than 2007.

This compared with just 19 percent in Taiwan, which will hold legislative and presidential elections this month and in March. A third of Taiwanese thought that this year would be worse, the highest figure in the region.

Only 21 percent of people surveyed in Japan and Indonesia thought the next year would show an improvement over last year.

Among the 11 nations surveyed between October and last month, New Zealand, Australia and India were the most optimistic after Hong Kong.

Thomas Isaac, director of research services at TNS in Hong Kong, said the city's strong economy had played a major role in boosting confidence.

Managers more confident

Nearly 50 percent of Taiwanese managers with the nation's top 5,000 companies are confident that their corporate earnings may see solid growth this year, a survey by China Credit Information Service Ltd (中華徵信所) found.

Those whose companies invested in China were more confident than those whose companies did not, the report said.

As many as 72 percent of respondents expressed concern over the nation's economic prospects and migration of company activity offshore.

The survey was completed by China Credit late last month with 607 valid telephone interviews.

NT dollar makes gains

The New Taiwan dollar yesterday advanced by NT$0.056 to close at NT$32.443 against the greenback on turnover of US$871 million.