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TAIEX rises 0.37 percent

Taiwanese shares closed up 0.37 percent yesterday as dealers took their cue from Wall Street’s high for this year at the end of last week, dealers said.

The weighted index rose 27.92 points to 7,599.88 on turnover of NT$105.61 billion (US$3.27 billion).

The market opened up 0.64 percent with buying triggered by an extended rally on Wall Street on Friday, but selling immediately followed to turn many investors away with daily turnover down, dealers said.

“It was no surprise that investors tended to pocket recent significant gains as many stocks, in particular high-tech firms, looked expensive,” President Securities (統一證券) analyst Steven Huang said.

Rotational buying was active with old-economy stocks in focus, dealers said.

“The interest in these stocks was strong on high hopes of rising property prices. But their weighting is not large enough to lift the broader market too much,” Huang said.

“I expect consolidation will continue to dominate the trade over the next few sessions,” he said.

High-tech firms closed mixed on profit-taking.

China Motor shares climb

China Motor Corp (中華汽車), a Taiwanese carmaker that builds Mercedes-Benz vans in China, climbed to the highest level in 16 months after it reported sales last month grew 31 percent from a year earlier.

China Motor gained 3.7 percent to NT$24.15 as of 12:22pm, the highest since June 5 last year. The carmarker said sales increased to NT$2.29 billion.

Meanwhile, New Focus Auto Tech Holdings Ltd (新焦點汽車), a Hong Kong-based auto parts maker, surged by its daily limit on its first day of trading in Taipei.

The stock jumped 7 percent to NT$7.49 as of 10:43am. Shares sold at NT$7 each.

Investor slams China

An investor furious over fraud she allegedly suffered in China placed a front-page ad in a major Taiwanese paper yesterday to address her grievances to Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤).

The owner of a construction materials company, who identified herself only by her surname Peng, said in the United Daily News advertisement that her Chinese partner stole US$360,000 from her in early 2007.

When Peng asked her partner to return the money, the partner threatened to kill her, said the ad, which took up half a broadsheet page in the mass-circulation paper.

“China, are you really the motherland? Why is the country so full of wolves? Where is justice?” Peng said in the ad, which was also addressed to Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶).

Peng, who is based in San Francisco, could not be reached through the phone number she left in the ad.

The United Daily News said the ad cost Peng at least NT$1 million.

ECFA Web site updated

The Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday launched a revamped version of the economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) Web site to give the public a greater understanding on the related issues. The new site has added a new audio-visual download section where the public can download footage, soundbites and promotional brochures to learn more about the ECFA.

Meanwhile, the “Latest News” section will give the public first-hand updates on policy matters related to the pact, the ministry said in a statement. To encourage more traffic to the portal, the Web site will have quizzes to test the public’s knowledge on the ECFA and those who answer correctly can win prizes including notebook computers.
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