TAIEX falls 0.78%
Share prices closed lower yesterday, with the TAIEX falling 61.93 points, or 0.78 percent, to close at 7,835.98.
The bourse opened at 7,861.90 and fluctuated between 7,872.78 and 7,791.25 during the day’s trading. Turnover totaled NT$105.46 billion (US$3.31 billion).
Five of the eight major stock categories gained ground, with food shares moving up the most at 1 percent. Foreign investors and Chinese qualified domestic institutional investors were net sellers of NT$7.91 billion in shares.
ANZ seeks new branches
Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd (ANZ) plans to add as many as nine additional branches in Taiwan over the next two years, a senior official said yesterday.
The bank has 21 branches in Taiwan following its acquisition of Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc’s retail, commercial and institutional businesses there, Alex Thursby, ANZ’s Asia Pacific, Europe and Americas chief executive officer, told reporters in a briefing in Hong Kong.
The bank, the third-biggest in Australia by market value, also said it has completed the acquisition of RBS’s retail and commercial business in Hong Kong. ANZ agreed last August to pay US$550 million for parts of RBS’s businesses in Singapore, Taiwan, Indonesia, Hong Kong, the Philippines and Vietnam.
Hotai Motor founder dies
Huang Leih-ho (黃烈火), who founded Hotai Motor Co (和泰汽車) and Wei Chuan Foods Corp (味全食品), died yesterday of heart failure at age of 100.
Huang founded Hotai in 1947 and Wei Chuan Foods in 1953. After retiring, he devoted himself to charity work.
Taiwan Glass shares surge
Taiwan Glass Industrial Corp (台玻), the nation’s largest glass maker, surged by the daily limit in Taipei trading on speculation prices of glass fiber will increase, said Diana Wu, a vice-president at Capital Securities Corp (群益證券).
Taiwan Glass jumped 7 percent, the most since 2000, to close at NT$32.10 yesterday.
Glass fiber prices may rise because Taiwan Glass plans to shut a plant for annual maintenance, Wu said in an e-mailed note.
NT dollar slides
The New Taiwan dollar declined, extending its retreat from an 18-month high, on speculation the central bank intervened during the final minute of trading to curb gains that may hurt exports.
The currency pared or reversed gains in late trading every day last week amid speculation the central bank sold the NT dollar.
The bank is closely monitoring overseas fund inflows, bank Governor Perng Fai-nan (彭淮南) said last Wednesday. It intervened again yesterday, said two traders who declined to be identified.
“The central bank is stalling the NT dollar’s appreciation,” said Tigr Cheng (程裕城), a strategist at Polaris Securities Co (寶來證券) in Taipei. “It is probing the speculative funds.”
The NT dollar fell 0.3 percent to NT$31.886 against its US counterpart as of 4pm, after rising 0.2 percent earlier in the day, Taipei Forex Inc said. At 3:57pm, the currency was little changed at NT$31.797, with no trades in the following two minutes, Bloomberg data showed. The two traders said that the price-change occurred during the final minute of the day’s trading.
The NT dollar hit NT$31.667 last Thursday, the highest level since September 2008, as overseas investors bought NT$32.6 billion more Taiwanese shares than they sold last week.
The nation had US$2.45 billion of foreign-capital inflows this year through March 15, Perng said last week, adding that the money should be used for its stated purpose and the bank was monitoring inflows.
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