Shares follow regional markets
Taiwanese shares closed 1.28 percent higher yesterday in line with other regional markets, dealers said.
The TAIEX index rose 93.98 points to finish at 7,440.24 on turnover of NT$132.19 billion (US$4.06 billion), up from the previous day’s NT$97.45 billion.
Foreign institutional investors were net buyers for the second consecutive day, with net buying of NT$11.5 billion in shares, more than double the previous day’s NT$5.7 billion in shares.
Gainers outnumbered losers 1,808 to 659, while 193 shares remained unchanged. A total of 57 stocks surged to their daily 7 percent limit against 12 that were limit-down.
BYD is Asia’s top stock
BYD Co (比亞迪), a Chinese maker of cars and batteries, ranks as Asia’s best performing stock since Lehman Brothers’ collapse a year ago, helped by an HK$1.8 billion (US$232 million) investment from Warren Buffett.
The company rose 7.3 percent to HK$66.60 in Hong Kong on Tuesday, extending gains over the past year to 648 percent. That’s the biggest increase in the MSCI AC Asia Pacific Index.
Chinese Gamer International Corp (中華網龍), the Taiwanese maker of online games, ranks second with a 563 percent increase. The wider index, tracking 978 stocks, is little changed.
Plan for e-book market
The Ministry of Economic Affairs unveiled a plan on Tuesday to promote the development of an electronic publishing industry and create an e-book market.
The ministry predicted that the number of e-book readers in Taiwan will reach 10,000 by next year, growing 100-fold to hit 1 million by 2013.
To read e-books, consumers must purchase an e-book reading device that costs NT$300 to NT$400. With the device, users can download books at prices that are only 30 percent to 40 percent of their print equivalents, with each device capable of accommodating up to 3,500 books, officials said.
Under the plan, the government will funnel NT$2.13 billion over the next five years into creating large Chinese-language content trading centers, promoting e-learning model projects and cooperation between Taiwanese and Chinese publishing markets, while subsidizing research and development in related industries, officials said.
LG lifts phone sales target
LG Electronics Inc, the world’s third-largest maker of mobile phones, said it aims to sell 120 million handsets this year, up from 100.7 million phones last year.
Judy Pae, a spokeswoman for Seoul-based LG Electronics, yesterday confirmed a Seoul Economic Daily report that cited comments by Skott Ahn, president of the company’s mobile-phone business, on the shipment target.
Nokia Oyj had 37.8 percent of the global mobile-phone market in the second quarter, followed by Samsung Electronics Co’s 19.2 percent, according to researcher Strategy Analytics. LG had a market share of 10.9 percent, followed by Motorola Inc’s 5.4 percent and Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications Ltd’s 5.1 percent.
NT dollar gains again
With Taiwanese shares attracting more overseas funds, the NT dollar gained ground again against the US dollar on the Taipei Foreign Exchange yesterday, rising NT$0.145 to close at NT$32.492.
The NT dollar is “relatively stable,” the central bank said in a faxed statement, after the local currency rose to a three-month high.
A total of US$1.24 billion changed hands during the day’s trading, up from the previous day’s US$794 million.
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