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Shares hit three-month high

Share prices closed up 2.06 percent yesterday at a three-month high after Wall Street's overnight gains, dealers said.

The government's move to ease restrictions on Taiwanese business investment in China also boosted investor confidence amid hopes of closer commercial ties with China after the March 22 presidential election, they said.

The weighted index closed up 174.69 points at 8,658.64, a level not seen since Dec.11. Turnover was NT$188.84 billion (US$6.13 billion).

Risers led decliners 1,388 to 703, with 292 stocks unchanged. Sixty stocks closed limit-up and 19 ended limit-down.

Mega International to expand

The Financial Supervisory Com-mission (FSC) yesterday gave its approval to Mega International Commercial Bank's (兆豐國際商銀) applications to set up a representative office in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE), and a branch in Macau.

"Mega has evaluated the market in the Middle East, aiming to tap into business opportunities there," commission Vice Chairwoman Susan Chang (張秀蓮) told a press briefing yesterday.

Mega International will be the first Taiwanese bank to set up a representative office in the UAE and the nation's existing representative office in Bahrain will be shut down once the bank's office is opened, Chang said.

The bank, a subsidiary of Mega Financial Holding Co (兆豐金控), has 19 overseas branches, two representative offices and two subsidiary banks in Thailand and Canada, the commission's press release said.

Eee PC in worldwide launch

Asustek Computer Inc (華碩電腦) said yesterday it is planning a worldwide launch of the new low-cost Eee PC series in the second quarter, as rivals Acer Inc and Hewlett Packard Co also plan to launch similar products next quarter.

Asustek's next-generation laptops will include 8.9-inch liquid-crystal-display (LCD) screens, bigger than the 6-inch screen used in the previous products launched last October in Taiwan.

The new Eee PC series will run Microsoft Corp's operating system rather than the Linux system, Asustek said

Taiwan's women eager to retire

Among middle-aged career women in Asia, those in Taiwan are behind only their counterparts in Hong Kong in terms of their eagerness to leave the workforce, a survey released by HSBC showed yesterday.

Almost 24 percent of female Taiwanese respondents aged between 40 and 59 said they wished to retire early, second only to Hong Kong's 26 percent. Singapore was third with 15.5 percent, the survey entitled The Future of Retirement said.

Among respondents aged 60 and above, only 2 percent of Taiwanese women wished to keep working -- second only to China, where the figure was 1 percent.

To prepare for early retirement, Steve Chuang (莊懷德), senior vice president of HSBC wealth management, recommended that career women place more than 50 percent of their investments in equities for a period of more than five years.

NT dollar gains

The New Taiwan dollar advanced for a third day on speculation the central bank will allow further gains in the currency to temper rising consumer prices.

The New Taiwan dollar advanced 0.4 percent against the greenback to NT$30.748, Taipei Forex Inc said.

"The Taiwan dollar's appreciation is a tool for the central bank to help cap inflation," said Yang Kung-yi (楊恭逸), a currency trader at Shanghai Commercial & Savings Bank (上海商銀) in Taipei.
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