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TAIEX sheds 12 points

Taiwan shares closed 0.17 percent lower yesterday on mixed signals for different sectors, dealers said.

The weighted index dropped 12.25 points to 7,322.93 on turnover of NT$79.13 billion (US$2.43 billion).

However, gainers outnumbered losers 1,388 to 1,035, while 295 stocks remained unchanged.

A total of 25 shares surged to their daily 7 percent limit, against 18 limit-down.

“While investors were reluctant to build up their portfolio, they did not want to dump their shares at low levels,” said Chen Yu-yu (陳育娛) of Capital Securities (群益證券).

Allianz bullish on Taiwan

Taiwanese stocks will offer one of the best returns in Asia next year as corporate earnings improve with warming cross-strait relations, Allianz SE said.

The signing of an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) with China could help Taiwanese companies expand beyond their home market, boosting the outlook for profits, said Nikhil Srinivasan, who oversees about US$25 billion as Singapore-based chief investment officer for Asia and the Middle East at Europe’s biggest insurer.

“Taiwan is a buy story as the economic and commercial assumptions from cross-strait ties are positive for the market,” he said in a telephone interview yesterday.

“Once the agreement is signed, there’s going to be a re-rating on Taiwanese stocks in terms of price-earnings multiple over the next 12 months,” Srinivasan said.

Credit bad loan ratio improves

The nation’s credit card bad-loan ratio improved slightly in September, declining to 1.09 percent from the previous month’s 1.21 percent, statistics released by the Financial Supervisory Commission showed yesterday.

A total of 31.24 million credit cards from 38 issuers were in circulation as of the end of September, with revolving credit loans amounting to NT$216.4 billion, and cash-advance loans totaling NT$116.4 billion.

Thirty-seven card issuers imposed a bad loan ratio of below 3 percent, but Chinfon Commercial Bank’s (慶豐銀行) bad loan ratio was 5.69 percent in September, the commission said.

The nation’s cash card bad loan ratio also declined to 2.628 percent in September from the previous month’s 2.782 percent, the commission said.

About 940,000 cash cards issued by 18 banks were in effect in September, with total lending reaching NT$70.2 billion, the data showed.

Of the 18 issuers, DBS Group Holdings Ltd (星展銀行), Union Bank of Taiwan (聯邦銀行) and Chinfon had a bad loan ratio of 3.792 percent, 19.766 percent and 30.84 percent respectively, it said.

LG to set up LCD fab in China

South Korea’s LG Display said yesterday it had signed an agreement to help set up a US$4 billion fab to make liquid-crystal-­display (LCD) panels in southeast China.

The company, the world’s second-largest flat panel maker, said production from the plant in Guangzhou would begin in 2012 to meet growing demand for one of the world’s fastest-growing markets for flat-screen televisions.

A joint venture will be set up, with LG owning 70 percent and the remainder held by Guangzhou and a Chinese LCD TV maker.

NT dollar retreats

The New Taiwan dollar lost ground against the US dollar on the Taipei Foreign Exchange yesterday, declining NT$0.022 to close at NT$32.575. Turnover was US$907 million.
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