TAIEX inches up in light trade
Taiwan’s benchmark index closed up 0.34 percent yesterday in thin trade on a mild technical rebound from the previous session amid cautious sentiment ahead of the Nov. 27 special municipality elections, dealers said.
The TAIEX rose 27.91 points to 8,283.45, after moving between 8,238.77 and 8,286.92, on turnover of NT$74.94 billion (US$2.46 billion).
A total of 1,916 stocks closed up and 1,741 down, while 413 remained unchanged.
FSC revises investment rules
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday approved revisions to investment measures governing financial holding companies under which they must obtain controlling shares in the firms in which they plan to own stakes within three months or bow out.
The rule change will help prevent hostile takeover attempts that evolve into protracted boardroom disputes and create uncertainty in the market.
Financial holding companies seeking to acquire a peer must acquire a 25 percent stake in the latter within three months to make it a subsidiary, the commission said, adding they must divest the shares if the expansion bid fails.
Chinese IT provider sets TDR
Digital China Holdings Ltd (神州數碼), a Chinese integrated IT service provider, has set the listing price of its Taiwan depositary receipts (TDR) at NT$30.2 (US$0.99), underwriter KGI Securities (凱基證券) said yesterday.
Digital China is offering 260 million TDRs, each of which will represent 0.5 shares of the company, to raise about NT$7.85 billion for expansion, the underwriter said.
The scale of the fundraising will be the largest among TDR sales so far this year, it added.
The company, which has been listed in Hong Kong since 2001, is scheduled to list the TDRs on the main board on Wednesday.
China Steel, Baosteel to partner
China Steel Corp (中鋼), Taiwan’s largest steel producer, said yesterday it plans to team up with China-based Baosteel (寶鋼) to invest in iron ore mines abroad.
China Steel has reached a consensus with Baosteel on a planned joint venture, the first between the two, a company official said.
The Taiwanese steelmaker last year spent US$95 million on a stake in Brazil’s Namisa SA, its first investment in a foreign iron ore miner. It imports about 16 million tonnes of iron ore every year with 71 percent of the imports from Australia and about a quarter from Brazil.
Medical group to visit China
A large delegation representing major medical institutions in Taiwan is scheduled to depart for China later this month to explore the vast medical and health service market there, organizers said yesterday.
The Taiwan External Trade Development Council (外貿協會) said the delegation comprises about 50 high-level personnel from about 20 hospitals and medical centers around Taiwan.
The delegation is scheduled to visit Shanghai, Nanjing and Chongqing between Nov. 28 and Dec. 4. It will be the largest delegation of its kind to visit China since 2008, when representatives of Taiwanese hospitals made the first such trip, the council said.
NT dollar finishes higher
The New Taiwan dollar rose against the US dollar yesterday, up NT$0.06 to close at NT$30.733.
Turnover totaled US$665 million during the trading session.
The central bank intervened in the foreign exchange market again, dealers said. It is likely that the central bank will be able to maintain the value of the US dollar above NT$30.70 in the near term, they predicted.
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