Business Briefs

Shares close higher

Taiwan closed 0.99 percent higher yesterday as bargain hunters stepped in after the market fell sharply in line with Wall Street, dealers said.

The weighted index rose 82.23 points to the day's high of 8,381.60, off a low of 8,206.74, on turnover of NT$127.07 billion (US$4.15 billion).

Risers decliners 1,105 to 901, with 335 stocks unchanged. A total of 35 stocks closed limit-up and 17 closed limit-down.

"A widely recognized level of technical support, at around 8,200 points, proved its worth today," said Mega International Investment Services (兆豐投顧) assistant vice president Hung Chen-yuan (洪振源).

But Hung noted that rangebound consolidation appears likely in the run-up to the election day, as shown by the low turnover yesterday.

Ten-year bonds auctioned

The central bank yesterday auctioned NT$40 billion (US$1.31 billion) in 10-year treasury bonds at a yield of 2.432 percent, compared with a 2.509 percent yield in the previous 10-year bonds auction on Dec 13.

The central bank sold the bonds on the behalf of the Ministry of Finance, a central bank statement said.

MOEA allows EVA stake

The Investment Commission of the Ministry of Economic Affairs gave the green light on Monday to EVA Airways Corp's (長榮航空) investment in the Xiamen International Airport Group Co's (廈門國際航空港集團) two subsidiaries.

The company's filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange said EVA Airways acquired 2 percent stakes in the two subsidiaries, with a total purchase amount of NT$36.67 million (US$1.2 million).

The debt-ridden Far Eastern Air Transport Corp (FAT, 遠東航空) announced its plans on Feb. 29 to sell the 12 percent stakes it held in the Xiamen Air Cargo Hub (廈門航空貨運站), to EVA Airways, China Airlines Ltd (CAL, 中華航空), Taiwan Air Service Co (台灣航勤) and China's Xiamen Airport, for a total of NT$160 million, in a bid to solve its short-term liquidity problems.

Olympus may exclude branches

US equity fund Olympus expressed interest in acquiring cash-strapped Chinfon Commercial Bank (慶豐銀行), excluding its two Vietnamese branches, local media reported yesterday.

Talks Olympus and Chinfon came to a stalemate recently as the US fund refused to buy its Vietnamese branches, priced at US$200 million -- five times of their net worth, an Economic Daily News report said yesterday, without citing sources.

Suffering of NT$5.3 billion in 2006, Chinfon's shareholding meeting last year passed a capital-raising plan to inject another NT$14.17 billion into the bank. But Chinfon has had problems locating new investors and may be taken over by the government as it is pushed further into the red.

The report said that Olympus, which is reluctant to inject the full NT$14.17 billion capital, has asked Chinfon to liquidate its Vietnamese branches before talks of capital injection proceed.

But Chinfon believed its branch licenses in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, Vietnam are reasonably priced and refused to back down, the report said.

LNG imports to rise 43%

Taiwan's natural gas imports will rise 43 percent to 3 million tonnes this year from a year ago, Jane Liao (廖惠貞), general manager of state oil company CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油), said in Bangkok yesterday.

Total LNG imports will increase 13 percent to 9.4 million tonnes this year, she said at the Gastech conference. CPC is Taiwan's only LNG importer.

Staff writer, with Agencies";