Shares end sharply lower
The TAIEX closed 1.67 percent lower yesterday after Wall Street fell steeply overnight because of weak US manufacturing data and a spike in crude oil prices, dealers said.
The TAIEX closed down 138.85 points at 8,184.20, after trading between 8,130.41 and 8,243.93. Turnover was NT$104.92 billion (US$3.24 billion).
Decliners outnumbered advancers 1,514 to 461, with 356 unchanged.
The New Taiwan dollar was little changed on the Taipei foreign exchange market. It traded NT$0.012 higher to close at NT$32.431 against its US counterpart yesterday.
Ford picks Tata Motors
Ford Motor Co has picked India's Tata Motors Ltd as the top bidder to buy its Jaguar and Land Rover units, the US automaker said yesterday.
Ford said in a statement that it had entered into "focused negotiations at a more detailed level" with Tata, which means Tata has been picked as a preferred bidder for the British automakers.
"There is still a considerable amount of work to do, and while no final decision has been made, we will proceed with further substantive discussions with Tata Motors over the forthcoming weeks with a view to securing an agreement that is in the best interests of all parties concerned," Lewis Booth, executive vice president of Ford's European units, said in a statement.
Shin Kong Life fined NT$1.8m
The Financial Supervisory Commission yesterday imposed a fine of NT$1.8 million on Shin Kong Life Insurance Co (新光人壽) because it failed to report two idle plots of land for more than two years -- a violation of the Insurance Law.
The law aims to control the amount of capital insurers invest in real estate, a market that has less liquidity than other investment destinations. Locking their long-term capital in low-liquidity property is a risk to insurers' future use of capital and finances, the commission's vice chairwoman Susan Chang (張秀蓮) told a press briefing yesterday.
Shin Kong said it failed to develop the land because a slumping housing market had made it difficult for it to follow through with its development plans.
"The commission found its excuse reasonable and decided to impose the smallest fine of NT$900,000 for each piece of land," Chang said.
The commission would ask Shin Kong to improve the development of its land or find other ways to generate fixed-income, such as monthly rental, before any further punishment, she said.
Qimonda, Macronix ink pact
Qimonda AG has signed a five-year cooperation agreement with Macronix International Co (旺宏) for the joint development of non-volatile memory technologies.
The development will be conducted at Qimonda's operation in Dresden, Germany, the company said in a statement yesterday.
Gym members file complaints
Almost 9,000 members of the Alexander Group (亞力山大集團) have filed complaints to the Bankers Association (銀行公會), requesting refunds of membership payments from the failed gym club operator.
As of Tuesday, NT$264 million is in dispute, the Financial Supervisory Commission's statistics showed yesterday.
Members have been asking credit card issuers to suspend their monthly payments to Alexander, although some banks have argued that they cannot do so because full payments have already been made.
To settle the dispute, the association is acting on behalf of members and conducting negotiations with the banks.
STAFF WRITER, WITH AGENCIES
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