Profit-taking limits TAIEX
Share prices closed 1.21 percent lower yesterday on profit-taking, dealers said, as the TAIEX dropped 93.57 points to 7,607.93 on turnover of NT$139.04 billion (US$4.30 billion).
Losers outnumbered gainers 2,141 to 591, while 126 stocks were unchanged.
“The pressure was huge as the market approached the 7,800-point level,” said Chen Yu-yu (陳育娛) of Capital Securities Corp (群益證券).
“The market had already absorbed positive factors like the proposed financial cooperation agreement between Taiwan and China and the scheduled release of Microsoft’s Windows 7 operating system,” he said.
Meanwhile, investors were taking cues from China, who said its third-quarter economic growth picked up to 8.9 percent.
“Local China plays were very strong today,” Chen said.
Repo rights suspended
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday suspended Taiwan International Securities Corp (金鼎證券) from trading bonds with repurchase agreements (repo) in the next two months.
The brokerage was punished after it was found to have overlooked the credit of its five investors, which have failed to buy back its structure notes as repo agreements mature, the commission said in a press statement.
A repo agreement allows a borrower to use a financial security as collateral for a cash loan at a fixed rate of interest.
In a repo, the borrower agrees to sell immediately a security to a lender and buy back the same security from the lender at a fixed price at a later date.
The brokerage will be barred from opening new outlets, offering new loans or either operating wealth management or securities businesses in the next year, a commission official said.
Swiss Re’s closure approved
The FSC gave the go-ahead yesterday to global reinsurer Swiss Re’s application to close its local branch after its parent company suffered 1 billion Swiss francs (US$993.5 million) in losses and planned to cut global staff by one-tenth.
The reinsurer’s Taipei branch had nine employees and a working capital of NT$50 million, the commission said.
Acer confirms profit target
Acer Inc (宏碁), the world’s second-largest computer supplier, said it aims to achieve US$30 billion in annual revenue within three years.
The Taipei-based company gave the sales projection in an e-mail yesterday, confirming a Reuters report that cited Acer chairman Wang Jeng-tang (王振堂).
Acer, which had sales of US$17.3 billion last year, is expected to post revenue of US$17.7 billion this year, according to the median of 24 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.
The company targets revenue of US$30 billion in 2011, president Gianfranco Lanci said in September last year.
Rate benchmark introduced
Taiwan Depository & Clearing Corp (台灣集保) on Wednesday introduced a benchmark on the nation’s short-term interest rates, with tenors ranging from 10 days to 365 days.
Twenty-one financial institutions, including Citibank Inc’s local unit and state-run Bank of Taiwan (臺灣銀行), contribute to the Taiwan Bills Index Rate, the company said in a statement on its Web site.
NT dollar slips
The New Taiwan lost ground against the US dollar on the Taipei Foreign Exchange yesterday, declining NT$0.044 to close at NT$32.403.
Turnover was US$1.04 billion.
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