TAIEX dips on profit-taking
Shares edged down 0.11 percent yesterday on profit-taking following a recent rally spurred by Wall Street’s rebound, dealers said.
The weighted index closed down 5.31 points at 4,754.65 on turnover of NT$84.15 billion (US$2.44 billion).
Losers outnumbered gainers 872 to 848, while 207 stocks remained unchanged.
“Investors were reluctant to push prices higher,” Steven Huang of President Securities said, referring to an index range of 4,600 to 4,700.
“The odds of the market topping the cap of 5,000 points are pretty high, led by electronics shares,” he said. “Sentiment is expected to remain positive for a while.”
MOEA hosts business meeting
The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) will host the 2009 Taiwan Business Alliance Conference on April 3, hoping to attract 600 participants and promote capital repatriation.
The conference has already attracted more than 200 participants, the ministry’s Department of Investment Services said yesterday.
Conference registrations usually reaching a peak during March just before the event, the department said.
The conference will focus on four major topics: new energy development and opportunities, public infrastructure projects, initial public offering and enterprise transformation.
Straits Exchange Foundation Secretary-General Kao Koong-lian (高孔廉), Acer Inc (宏碁) chairman Wang Jeng-tang (王振堂) and Dongguan Taiwan Businessmen Investment Enterprise Association (東莞台商協會) chairman Yeh Tsuan-zhong (葉春榮) will be some of the guest speakers.
Shin Kong Life fined NT$2.4m
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) fined Shin Kong Life Insurance Co (新光人壽) NT$2.4 million yesterday for violating the Insurance Act (保險法) by illegally touting an investment-linked policy that had exploited 1,000 policyholders since early 2007.
The FSC said the company had earned NT$1.3 billion in premiums from the sales.
The commission said the company’s top management had systematically trained its agents to exaggerate the policy’s “guaranteed returns” while enticing buyers to take out mortgages from the insurer to be able to invest in the product.
It ordered Shin Kong Life to list appropriate punishments for the management team in charge of the sales department.
The company is barred from selling all types of investment-linked policies for three months until further improvements are made, the statement said.
Improvements in salespersons trainings will have to be recognized by the insurer’s independent board directors and supervisors as well as a third-party institution before the sales suspension will be lifted, the commission said.
Vedan to compensate farmers
Vedan (味丹), a Taiwanese-owned condiment company, has agreed to compensate Vietnamese farmers for damage from pollution caused by illegal discharging into a Vietnamese river for more than a decade, the company and farmers said yesterday.
“On the basis of our humanitarian responsibility to society, Vedan has offered a solution to share the farmers’ losses to some extent,” Vedan lawyer Hoang Nhu Vinh said.
Vinh said farmers would have to agree never to sue Vedan to receive payouts from the company.
To date, 8,000 farmers in the provinces of Ho Chi Minh City, Dong Nai and Ba Ria-Vung Tau have petitioned the government demanding compensation from Vedan.
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