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Shares fall 0.35%

Taiwan's share prices closed 0.35 percent lower yesterday amid investor caution on the eve of legislative elections, with profit-taking wiping out early gains, dealers said.

The TAIEX closed down 27.96 points at 8,029.31 off a high of 8,151.95 on turnover of NT$109.33 billion (US$3.36 billion).

Decliners outnumbered advancers 1,018 to 831, with 493 stocks unchanged.

For the week, the weighted index closed down 191.79 points or 2.33 percent after a 2.09 percent fall the week before.

Average daily turnover stood at NT$131.54 billion, compared with NT$106.31 billion a week ago.

Central bank auctions bills

The nation's central bank auctioned NT$40 billion (US$1.2 billion) in five-year treasury bills yesterday at a yield of 2.49 percent, the central bank said in a statement.

The yield offered by bidders was significantly lower than the 2.74 percent of NT$28.3 billion in five-year debt issued last October.

Yesterday's auction drew bids equal to 2.28 times the debt on offer, compared with 1.62 times at the last auction, the statement said.

S&P stands by Mega rating

Standard & Poor's Ratings Services yesterday said its ratings and outlook for Mega International Bank (兆豐國際銀行) were not affected by the lender's latest disclosure of losses from its US subprime mortgage-related investments.

The international ratings agency expects the Taipei-based lender to "maintain satisfactory profitability relative to its domestic peers," it said in a statement.

Mega Bank incurred a loss of NT$807 million (US$24.86 million) for the fourth quarter of last year on a NT$1.1 billion investment in subprime mortgage products, the bank said on Wednesday.

For the whole of last year, Mega may see its subprime-related losses total NT$1 billion, compared with its net profit estimate of NT$15 billion, the bank said at the time.

Taiwan tops in ICT products

Taiwan ranked first in worldwide market share for 11 information and communications technology (ICT) products last year, according to statistics released on Thursday by the Taipei-based Market Intelligence Center (MIC).

Taiwan was tops in global market share for motherboards, notebook computers, LCD monitors, CDT monitors, digital signal controllers, cable CPEs, VoIP routers, DSL CPE devices, WLAN NIC cards, IP phones and IP set-top boxes, the statistics showed.

The tallies also show that the country ranked second in market share for five other ICT products, including WLAN access point devices, servers, cable set-top boxes, desktop PCs and optical disk drives.

MIC officials said the statistics clearly demonstrate that Taiwan's ICT manufacturers have received international recognition.

New Century names Nilsson

The board of fixed-line company New Century InfoComm Tech Co (新世紀資通) yesterday approved the nomination of Far EasTone Telecommunications Co (遠傳電信) vice chairman Jan Nilsson as its own vice chairman.

As part of the management shakeup, Far EasTone vice president Jeffrey Gee (紀竹律) would succeed Lim Shyong (林雄) as New Century's new president. Lim's contract with New Century was due to end yesterday.

Far EasTone owns a 24.51 percent stake in New Century.

NT dollar gains ground

The New Taiwan dollar gained ground against the US dollar on the Taipei Forex Inc yesterday, rising NT$0.021 to close at NT$32.466. A total of US$664 million changed hands during the day's trading.
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