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TAIEX up 1.86 percent

Taiwanese shares closed 1.86 percent higher yesterday as the country's currency continued to strengthen and Wall Street rose overnight, dealers said.

Some investors said a liquidity-driven upswing is likely to continue in the run-up to the March 22 presidential election, they said.

The weighted index closed up 154.41 points at the day's high of 8,462.08, off a low of 8,362.94, on turnover of NT$177.10 billion (US$5.67 billion).

Risers led decliners 1,410 to 582, with 354 stocks unchanged. A total of 47 stocks closed limit-up and 17 were limit-down.

The Taipei bourse has gained 10.27 percent since it resumed trading on Feb. 12 after the Lunar New Year holiday.

BMW cuts more jobs

Luxury car maker BMW AG said yesterday it will cut another 5,600 jobs by the end of this year, on top of 2,500 other positions that have already been eliminated, as it moves to pare expenses amid a wider cost-cutting program.

Speaking to reporters in Munich, Germany, where the company is based, BMW head of personnel Ernst Baumann said that the jobs being cut included 2,500 full-time workers and 2,500 temporary workers, along with 600 other positions in Germany and elsewhere.

He said that another 2,500 positions had already been eliminated, bringing the total number of cuts and planned cuts to 8,100.

In Germany, BMW has between 6,000 and 8,000 temporary workers. Worldwide, BMW employs just under 108,000 workers, company figures showed.

HP, Foxconn in Russia

Hewlett-Packard Co and Foxconn International Holdings (富士康) agreed with Eurasia Logistics, a Russian developer and operator of logistic centers, to build a US$50 million computer assembly plant near St. Petersburg.

Foxconn, the world's largest maker of handsets, bought a 12 hectare plot in the Kolpino industrial park in the Leningrad region, Eurasia Logistics said late yesterday in a statement on its Web site.

The plant is scheduled to open early next year and will make Hewlett-Packard personal computers, the statement said.

FET expects drop in profits

Far Eastone Telecommunications Co (FET, 遠傳電信), the nation's third-largest telephone company, forecast profit before tax would fall 8 percent in the current quarter from the previous three-month period as expenses climbed and investment income dropped.

Pretax profit in the first quarter will fall to NT$3 billion from NT$3.26 billion in the three months ended on Dec. 31, Taipei-based Far Eastone said in a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday. Sales could rise 4.3 percent to NT$12.74 billion.

Operating expenses will rise almost 9 percent to NT$3.44 billion, and investment gains from selling assets will fall 75 percent to NT$45.4 million, the company said.

This would be the second straight decline in quarter-on-quarter pretax profit for the company.

MOEA pushes biotech sector

The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) said yesterday it aimed to promote the nation's biotechnology development through its cooperation with the private sector.

"The MOEA has invited some 20 companies to form a service platform, in a bid to integrate the various sources that is essential to the development of the biotech industry," James Chen (陳韋呈), manager of the ministry's biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries program, said at a press briefing.

The majority of Taiwan's biotechnology firms are of small and medium-sized, which has led to a lack of professionals in the fields of legal issues, patents, marketing and technology management.
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