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[BUSINESS BRIEFS]

Shares slip 0.66%

Share prices closed 0.66 percent lower yesterday on profit-taking, dealers said.

The TAIEX dropped 49.58 points to 7,417.46 on turnover of NT$86.93 billion (US$2.67 billion). Losers outnumbered gainers 1,533 to 929, while 225 shares remained unchanged.

“Most of the sectors were weak except shares related to cloud computing technology,” Steven Huang of President Securities (統一證券) said.

The concept refers to computer applications or data storage as services hosted online by technology firms instead of being installed and maintained on users’ machines.

The rally of such shares came a day after Microsoft Corp signed an agreement with the government to jointly establish a research center in Taiwan for the development of Internet computing technology.

Forex reserves grow

The nation’s foreign exchange reserves gained US$8.98 billion to another new high of US$341.22 billion last month, from the level in the preceding month, the central bank said yesterday.

Lin Sun-yuan (林孫源), director-general of the bank’s department of foreign exchange, said foreign exchange management skills and rising values in reserves denominated in euro, the pound and other currencies against the greenback, caused the increase.

The issue of hot money showed improvement after the central bank voiced concern, he said without elaborating.

The foreign exchange adjustment did not alter the nation’s ranking as the fourth largest behind China, Japan and Russia.

NGAI opens local office

Natixis Global Associates International (NGAI), the distribution arm of French-based Natixis Global Asset Management (NGAM), opened its local subsidiary Natixis Securities Investment Consulting Co (法儲證券投顧) in Taipei yesterday.

The French company promised to build a Mandarin-speaking hub here before tapping the North Asia market.

The four-member local unit, headed by Michael Chang (張建榆), will support sales of both onshore and offshore funds as well as asset allocation services in the local market with help from its domestic master agent, Fubon Securities Investment Services Co (富邦投顧).

Chang forecast the nation’s sales of offshore funds would see a 10 percent to 15 percent growth, reaching US$78 billion.

Once China opens its financial market to Taiwan, the company hopes to leverage its experience in Taiwan to tap the China market, said Herve Guinamant, president and CEO of NGAI.

The company had US$668 billion in assets under management as of June 30.

China UnionPay plans local unit

China’s only bank card association plans to open an office in Taiwan amid growing demand from Chinese tourists, the Chinese-language Economic Daily News reported yesterday.

China UnionPay Co (中國銀聯) could set up operations in Taiwan early next year, the newspaper said, without naming its source.

The government began allowing Chinese visitors to use China UnionPay cards here in August.

The Financial Supervisory Commission said it has not received an application from China UnionPay to set up the office.

China UnionPay cards transactions in Taiwan have totaled more than NT$700 million since August, the paper said.

NT dollar gains ground

The New Taiwan dollar gained ground against the US dollar on the Taipei Foreign Exchange yesterday, rising NT$0.022 to close at NT$32.536. Turnover was US$565 million.


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