TAIEX closes little changed
Taiwanese shares closed flat yesterday after profit-taking eroded early gains, dealers said.
The TAIEX index edged up 2.20 points, or 0.03 percent, to 7,753.52 on turnover worth NT$125.12 billion (US$3.88 billion).
Losers outnumbered gainers 1,401 to 1,120, while 248 stocks were unchanged.
But a total of 52 shares surged to their daily 7 percent limit against nine limit-down.
“After all, the market has risen to the high levels of the year, and a number of investors chose to stay on the sideline,” Steven Huang of President Securities (統一證券) said.
Taiwan to uphold restrictions
In its negotiations with China on an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA), Taiwan will maintain its stance of not fully opening its market to Chinese goods, despite Beijing’s complaints about the restrictions, Bureau of Foreign Trade Director-General Huang Chih-peng (黃志鵬) said yesterday.
Huang made the remarks one day after the Chinese Ministry of Commerce released a research report on the proposed cross-strait ECFA, which stated that Taiwan’s current restrictions on cross-strait trade and investment were hampering the expansion of economic cooperation between the two sides and are unfavorable to the promotion of the ECFA.
Huang said he is not surprised at such reports because there are indeed more than 2,000 items that Taiwan has kept on its restricted list. They include 830 agricultural products and some industrial products, which will remain banned even after an ECFA is signed.
Agora Garden sale imminent
Potential buyers of the five-star hotel Agora Garden (亞太會館), who met the sale’s floor price of NT$15 billion, have entered direct price negotiations with the owner and will arrive at a final purchase price soon, the deal’s organizer DTZ (戴德梁行) said yesterday.
The realtor refused to identify the buyers, nor respond to the speculation that six bidders have been qualified to take part in the deal.
Yageo revenue up 22 percent
Yageo Corp (國巨), the nation’s largest passive components service provider, yesterday posted consolidated third-quarter revenues of NT$5.46 billion, up 22 percent from the second quarter.
The momentum was driven by the strong demand for end products including notebooks, motherboards and power supplies. Thanks to its strong product combination and high utilization rate of facilities, margins in the third quarter hit 23.1 percent.
Third-quarter net income was NT$501 million, with earnings per share (EPS) at NT$0.23. The strong number turned the company into the black for the year with NT$0.08 in EPS.
CEPD cuts interest rate
The Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD) announced yesterday that it would cut interests on medium and long-term loans to private companies by 0.08 percentage points to 1.21 percent and 1.18 percent respectively, starting immediately.
The council said in a statement that it decided to make the adjustment to reflect the rate cut on Oct. 9 by China Post Co (中華郵政) on postal savings deposits, the source of the funding for the aid program.
The council encouraged firms to take advantage of the program to lower borrowing costs.
NT gains against greenback
The NT dollar rose against the US dollar on the Taipei Foreign Exchange yesterday, edging up NT$0.050 to close at NT$32.275.
A total of US$532 million changed hands during the day’s trading.
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