Shares follow Wall Street rise
Share prices closed up 0.64 percent yesterday as profit-taking undercut gains inspired by Wall Street's overnight rally, dealers said.
The TAIEX closed up 53.70 points at 8,435.30, after trading between 8,424.10 and 8,574.66, on turnover of NT$146.61 billion (US$4.8 billion).
Dealers said investors opted to take profits despite optimism about a move by the US Federal Reserve to pump US$200 billion into stressed financial markets, which sparked a surge in US share prices.
Risers led decliners 1,239 to 756, with 378 stocks unchanged. A total of 12 stocks closed limit-up and 21 were limit-down.
Chang bans raising fees
Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄) yesterday banned raising more than 3,000 fees charged by government departments for their various administrative businesses.
Chang made the remarks at a Cabinet-level task force established to look into measures to stabilize commodity prices, in the wake of to a plan by College Entrance Examination Center, under the Ministry of Education, that it consider increasing exam registration fee.
Among the fees to be frozen include vehicle fuel fee, certificate and license fees, passport fee, visa fee, and the fee imposed by the Judicial Yuan for people filing judicial complaints, which amounting to NT$415 million on average in a year.
Shipments to increase: report
Shipments of televisions using liquid-crystal display technology will increase 28 percent this year as makers step up marketing and offer discounts, researcher iSuppli Corp said.
More than 100.1 million LCD TV's will be shipped this year, compared with 78.5 million last year, iSuppli said in an e-mailed statement dated Tuesday.
Shipments may almost double from this year to 194 million in 2012 as the market expands, the researcher said.
Prices for LCD TVs measuring 42 inches have more than halved since 2006, iSuppli said.
"Declining prices are enabling more consumers to adopt the technology," the El Segundo, California-based iSuppli said in the statement.
DC Chemical gets large order
DC Chemical Co, a South Korean maker of petrochemicals and solar power components, said it won a 243.8 billion won (US$253 million) order to supply polysilicon to Taiwan's Sino-American Silicon Products Inc (中美矽晶).
The material used for making solar power panels will be delivered over eight years ending December 2016, the company said in a regulatory filing in Seoul yesterday.
Operator sells broadband shares
Australia's biggest commercial-radio operator, Macquarie Media Group, sold its majority in cable-television company Taiwan Broadband Communications (台灣寬頻) for A$400 million (US$370 million) and may use the money for acquisitions.
The company may use proceeds from the sale of the 60 percent stake to Macquarie Korea Opportunities Fund to finance expansion or return money to shareholders, Sydney-based Macquarie Media said yesterday in a statement to the Australian Stock Exchange.
"Macquarie Media will have significant flexibility to grow the group or pursue capital management initiatives, noting that no term debt is due until June 2010," the company said in the statement.
NT dollar falls against US
The New Taiwan dollar lost ground against the US dollar on the Taipei Foreign Exchange yesterday, declining NT$0.066 to close at NT$30.690.
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