TAIEX up on lackluster trading
The TAIEX rose 0.18 percent yesterday as rotational buying lifted high-tech stocks, while investors pocketed recent gains posted by old economy stocks, dealers said.
The index edged up 15.05 points to close at 8,445.63, after moving between 8,421.13 and 8,457.41, on turnover of NT$97.62 billion (US$3.23 billion).
The market opened up 0.12 points after Wall Street’s lackluster performance overnight and continued to trade within a narrow range, with investors taking hints from weakness in other regional markets, dealers said.
A total of 2,073 stocks closed down, 1,688 finished up and 375 remained unchanged.
Cathay Holdings posts profit
Cathay Financial Holdings Co (國泰金控) posted a consolidated net income of NT$1.31 billion (US$42.8 million) last month, with roughly equal contributions from its life insurance and banking subsidiaries, the company said in a statement yesterday.
Cathay Life Insurance Co (國泰人壽) and Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) reported net profits of NT$830 million and NT$840 million respectively last month, the parent company said, attributing the gains to improving core businesses as the economy continued to pick up.
Accumulated net profit for the first 10 months totaled NT$5.53 billion, or earnings per share of NT$0.55, the company said.
CPC cuts ethylene supply
State-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) said yesterday that two of its naphtha crackers in Kaohsiung were operating at about 90 percent of capacity while another had been shut down for maintenance.
The company has reduced ethylene supply to customers to 70 percent of contractual volumes after closing its No. 4 naphtha cracker on Wednesday last week, vice president Paul Chen (陳綠蔚) said by telephone.
CPC operates three crackers with a combined annual ethylene output capacity of 1.1 million tonnes, including the No. 4 cracker’s 385,000 tonnes. Two other crackers are no longer in service.
Acer books Wistron gains
Acer Inc (宏碁) booked gains of NT$1.1 billion from selling 35 million Wistron Corp (緯創) common shares for a total of US$69 million, the Taipei-based computer firm said in a statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday.
Acer still owns 41 million shares, or 2.1 percent, of Wistron, the statement said.
TTL chairman replaced
The Ministry of Finance said yesterday it had approved the resignation of Duan Wei (韋伯韜) as chairman of the state-owned Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor Corp (TTL, 台灣菸酒公司) following his impeachment by the Control Yuan.
Deputy Minister of Finance William Tseng (曾銘宗) has temporarily taken over as TTL chairman, the ministry said.
Wei was impeached on Monday for violating the law by heading and investing in a private firm while serving at the TTL and the Miaoli County Government’s finance department.
Taipower to try carbon-capture
Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電), the biggest greenhouse gas emitter in Taiwan, plans to start trial runs of a carbon-capture program at its Taichung coal-fired station in line with the government’s pledge to cut emissions.
Taipower aims to capture 10,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the station — the company’s biggest — by 2014, chief engineer Tu Yueh-yuan (杜悅元) said yesterday.
NT dollar advances
The New Taiwan dollar rose NT$0.006 against the greenback to close at NT$30.63 yesterday on turnover of US$640 million.
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