TAIEX rises on order rush
Taiwanese shares closed up 2.11 percent yesterday amid investor optimism spurred by reports of rush orders for electronic products, dealers said.
The weighted index rose 95.78 points to 4,637.2 on turnover of NT$106.78 billion (US$3.07 billion).
Gainers outnumbered losers 1,363 to 405, while 131 shares were unchanged.
“Market sentiment is turning slightly for the better after an increasing number of signs indicated that the pessimism which had weighed down the market might be too much,” said Alex Huang (黃國偉) of Mega International Investment Services (兆豐國際投顧).
Huang expected the uptrend to continue until next month when local makers start delivery for the rush orders they recently received.
Court approves restructuring
First International Telecom Corp (大眾電信), the nation’s only supplier of short-range telecom services, said yesterday that Taipei District Court had approved its application for restructuring.
The telecom carrier is scheduled to present the restructuring plan to a creditor’s meeting on April 27 for final approval, company president Andrew Hsu (�?�) said by telephone.
The restructuring plan calls for finalizing its plans to repay debt, reducing its outstanding shares and issuing new shares to raise an estimated NT$2.4 billion in new capital before the end of the year, Hsu said.
The telecom company has accumulated NT$1.8 billion in losses.
Last September, the phone company filed for insolvency protection and pledged to work out a restructuring plan.
FSC fines Kuo Hua
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday imposed a NT$9.6 million fine on Kuo Hua Life Insurance Co (國華人壽) for violating the Insurance Law, the commission said in a press statement.
The life insurer was punished for underestimating its capital reserve, failing to meet required hedging purposes for derivatives transactions and leaving several property development projects idle for more than two years.
The commission also reversed a prior ruling imposing a NT$10 million fine on China Development Industrial Bank (中華開發工銀) for “lack of internal controls” during its liquidation of overseas investments and an asset management subsidiary.
The commission imposed a new NT$4 million fine after the bank’s appeal to the Taipei High Administrative Court suggested that the commission should consider a less severe punishment given that the bank had an internal control mechanism in place although it was found to be negligent in some areas.
Forex reserves rise in February
Despite a flagging economy, the nation’s foreign exchange reserves continued to accumulate while its major trade rivals reported losses, the central bank said yesterday.
At the end of last month, the nation’s foreign exchange reserves amounted to US$294.19 billion, up US$1.511 billion from a month earlier, Lin Sun-yuan (林孫源), deputy director-general of the Department of Foreign Exchange, told a press briefing.
Lin attributed the increase to the monetary regulator’s management strategy.
South Korea recorded a US$2 million drop in its foreign exchange reserves, which stood at US$200.8 billion, Lin said.
Hong Kong and Singapore also reported declines of US$3.7 billion and US$7.6 billion to US$169.9 billion and US$177.5 billion respectively, Lin said.
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