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Shares drop on US worries

Share prices closed down 0.95 percent yesterday amid concerns about the US economy and a fall in Chinese stock prices, dealers said.

A move by Chinese authorities on Wednesday to cool the Chinese economy led some inestors to sell stocks, they said.

The TAIEX shed 77.91 points to close at 8,101.63, off a high of 8,300.29 and a low of 8,004.47. Turnover was NT$169.87 billion (US$5.26 billion).

Decliners outnumbered advancers 1,230 to 752, with 391 stocks unchanged. A total of 20 stocks closed limit-up, while 48 were limit-down.

Stock turnover rises 38.3%

The Taiwan Stock Exchange's stock turnover totaled NT$33.44 trillion (US$1.04 trillion) last year, up 38.3 percent from a year earlier, with transaction of electronics stocks accounting for the lion's share of 68.6 percent, the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics said on its Web site on Wednesday.

The total turnover on the over-the-counter GRETAI Securities Market reached NT$8.54 trillion, up 66.4 percent from a year earlier, it said.

The benchmark TAIEX rose 8.7 percent last year, outpacing the Dow Jones Industrial Average's 6.4 percent rise, London's FTSE 100 index's 3.8 percent advance and the Nikkei-225 index's decline of 11.1 percent, the DGBAS said.

Meanwhile, NASDAQ rose 9.8 percent and Frankfurt's DAX 30 surged 22.3 percent last year, it said.

Taipower records losses

Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) posted a pre-tax deficit of NT$31.2 billion (US$970 million) last year, making it the only state-run company to have operated in the red last year, a Ministry of Economic Affairs official said on Wednesday.

The number of state-owned firms reporting a pre-tax annual deficit decreased sharply from seven in 2000 to one last year after the ministry began to privatize and reform state-owned companies, the official said.

Among all the state-run companies, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油), reported the highest pre-tax surplus at NT$15.4 billion last year, albeit NT$2.7 billion short of its target because of the government's decision to stabilize commodity prices by freezing the floating oil pricing mechanism two months ago, the official said.

CSBC Corp, Taiwan (台灣國際造船) recorded a pre-tax income of NT$2.5 billion last year, while Taiwan Sugar Co's (台糖) pre-tax profit last year came in at NT$7.3 billion, the official said.

The pre-tax earnings of Taiwan Water Corp (台灣自來水) last year amounted to NT$280 million. Aerospace Industrial Development Corp (漢翔航空) posted a pre-tax profit of NT$123 million last year, falling short of its target by NT$205 million, the official said.

UPS launches new services

United Parcel Service (UPS) yesterday launched eight new services in Taiwan, including UPS Broker of Choice, UPS Returns, UPS Express Freight and UPS FTZ Facilitator, to offer a consolidated platform of services for speedy delivery, flexible parcel collecting deadline and convenient returns or replacement.

The groundbreaking UPS Clinical Trials service is designed to help the country's biotech industry deliver experiment or research materials to laboratories and pharmaceutical firms all over the world, while the UPS WorldShip 10 program allows customers trace their packages with ease, the company said.

NT dollar slide continues

The New Taiwan dollar continued to lose ground against its US counterpart yesterday, falling NT$0.006 to close at NT$32.278 on the Taipei Forex Inc. Turnover totaled US$1.002 billion.
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