Share prices close lower
Share prices closed lower yesterday, with the TAIEX falling 24. 11 points, or 0.3 percent, to end at 7,811.87.
The bourse opened at 7,880.12 and fluctuated between 7,889.04 and 7,804.40 during the day’s trading. Turnover totaled NT$120.39 billion (US$3.78 billion).
Six of the eight major stock categories lost ground, with foodstuff shares and textile issues moving down the most at 1.2 percent. Losers outnumbered gainers 1,698 to 1,253, with 301 unchanged.
Foreign investors and Chinese QDIIs were net sellers of NT$2.69 billion in shares.
Chu touts economic expansion
Taiwan’s economy is expected to expand by more than 4.8 percent this year as the nation seeks closer economic ties with China, Vice Premier Eric Chu (朱立倫) said.
The forecast exceeds the prediction by the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics, which last month raised its GDP estimate for this year to a 4.7 percent increase from 4.4 percent.
Taiwan and China are in talks for an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) to cut trade tariffs and boost cross-border investment.
“As we strive for the ECFA, it will boost markets,” Chu told fund managers at an event in Taipei yesterday. “And with our hard work, our GDP can exceed 4.8 percent.”
Outgoing chairman honored
Taiwan honored outgoing Mitsubishi Corp (Taiwan) chairman Kazuhira Ogura yesterday for his long-term contribution to promoting economic and trade cooperation between Taiwan and Japan.
Minister of Economic Affairs Shih Yen-shiang (施顏祥) presented a medal of economic contribution to Ogura, who also chairs the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Taipei.
Ogura has worked for the Mitsubishi Corp subsidiary in Taiwan since 1995 and was promoted to chairman and general manager of Mitsubishi Corp (Taiwan) in 2005.
He was recently transferred to a position in Tokyo with the parent company, Japan’s largest general trading company with more than 200 bases of operations in approximately 80 countries worldwide.
Soft-World board OKs plan
Soft-World International Corp (智冠科技), the nation’s largest developer and distributor of online games, said its board approved a plan to pay a cash dividend of NT$6.15 per share on its earnings last year and a stock dividend of 5 shares per 1,000 held, according to an exchange filing by the Kaohsiung-based company yesterday.
Meanwhile, Chinese Gamer International Corp (中華網龍), a leading online game developer and the first listed on the stock market in Taiwan, said its board agreed to pay NT$10.6 per share in cash dividend to shareholders, a separate exchange filing showed.
HK watchdog to review IPOs
Hong Kong’s market watchdog is examining whether international investment banks and local sponsors carried out adequate due diligence on the city’s new listings last year, a report said yesterday.
The Financial Times said the regulator will look into Hong Kong’s US$31.8 billion of initial public offerings (IPOs) last year — the world’s biggest IPO market in 2009 — amid criticism that the territory’s exchange allowed poor-quality companies to float their shares.
The watchdog would launch a formal probe in the coming months on a handful of the 73 IPOs in the financial hub last year, 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$0.036 to close at NT$ 31.85. Turnover was US$790 million.
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