■ INVESTMENT
FSC approves changes
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday approved the Taiwan Stock Exchange Corp's proposal to revise its block trade system, which is slated to be implemented on April 4. Under the revision, paired block trade will be allowed between 8am and 8:30am before the market opens. The unit of price quotes will also be lowered from NT$0.1 to NT$0.01 for shares priced between NT$50 and NT$100 and to NT$0.05 for shares priced between NT$10 and NT$50. Paired trades are presently allowed at three time slots: 9:30am to 9:50am, 11:30am to 11:50am and 1:30pm to 5pm. The definition of block trades was also relaxed to include trades of more than 500,000 shares or worth more than NT$15 million (US$468,000).
■ FINANCE
Fubon subsidiary approved
Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控), the nation's second-largest financial services company, said it received approval to set up an insurance subsidiary in Vietnam. An application by Fubon Financial and its subsidiary, Fubon Insurance Co (富邦產險), to invest approximately NT$630 million (US$19.7 million) in Vietnam was approved by Taiwan's Financial Supervisory Commission, the Taipei-based company said in a filing to the stock exchange today. The company won initial approval from the commission to set up a property insurance subsidiary in Xiamen, China.
■ SEMICONDUCTORS
ProMOS to pay royalties
Mosaid Technologies Inc said Taiwan's ProMOS Technologies Inc (茂德) agreed to pay royalties for six years to settle a patent-infringement lawsuit over semiconductor designs. The amount wasn't disclosed. Mosel Vitelic Inc (茂矽), another Taiwanese chipmaker, agreed to make a lump-sum payment to end the suit against it, Ottawa-based Mosaid said today in a statement. "Our preference has always been to negotiate rather than litigate, and we believe that this is a fair settlement benefiting all parties," Mosaid chief executive officer John Lindgren said in the statement.
■ ENERGY
Crude oil imports increase
The nation's crude oil imports increased 14 percent from a year earlier in December, rebounding from a 24 percent decline in the previous month, the Ministry of Economic Affairs' Bureau of Energy said. Stockpiles of crude oil held by companies plunged 38 percent to 2.88 million kiloliters, about 18.1 million barrels, the bureau said on its Web site. Crude oil imports totaled 5.08 million kiloliters, the bureau said. Rising oil prices boosted the nation's December crude oil bill by 61 percent from a year earlier, the Ministry of Finance said.
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