TAIEX chalks up another gain
The TAIEX advanced for a fourth straight day yesterday, but turnover remained low, dealers said.
The weighted index closed 37.04 points higher at 8,545.08, after moving between 8,481.96 and 8,551.12 on turnover of NT$97.989 billion (US$3.31 billion).
A total of 1,958 stocks closed up, 2,040 were down and 614 remained unchanged.
FSC tightens credit checks
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) said yesterday it had asked lenders to strengthen credit checks and withdraw home loans using dummy accounts.
The commission issued the statement after it spotted cases where mortgage customers failed to demonstrate their debt payment ability or had other people pay their loans and interests.
The commission said it had instructed banking institutions to make amends and punish staffers involved. It also warned the public not to provide assistance in dummy accounts.
FSC may ease bank investment
The Financial Supervisory Commission is considering easing restrictions on investment by Taiwanese lenders in Chinese peers, Jean Chiu (邱淑貞), deputy director-general of the commission’s Banking Bureau, said by telephone yesterday.
The bureau is studying a proposal from the banking community that would allow a local financial firm to take stakes in more than one Chinese lender, Chiu said.
Any decision will need approval from the Cabinet, she said.
Fewer Japan tourists expected
The number of visitors from Japan could fall 20 to 30 percent in the first half of the year compared with an earlier forecast following the devastating quake that hit Japan on March 11, Huang Ji-shih (黃吉實), director of the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ statistic bureau, said yesterday.
Huang said 1.08 million Japanese visited Taiwan last year.
For the first two months of this year, the number of Japanese tourists and businesspeople visiting Taiwan rose 22 percent from a year earlier to 195,226, he said.
Quake could hit EVA earnings
EVA Airways Corp’s (EVA, 長榮航空) earnings could take a hit because of the earthquake in Japan, but the expansion of cross-strait flights could drive profits in the second half, Citigroup said in a report.
“EVA’s passenger traffic could be influenced negatively by the severe earthquake in Japan, one of the top-three profit-generating destinations,” Citigroup analyst Timothy Chen said.
Japan accounted for 12 percent of the passenger revenue of the nation’s second-biggest carrier and 7 percent of its total revenue, company data showed.
For cargo demand, potential disruptions in the manufacturing supply chain in the region could raise uncertainties over the next few months, Chen said.
FEDS board agrees on cash
Far Eastern Department Stores (FEDS, 遠東百貨) said yesterday its board had approved a proposal to pay a cash dividend of NT$1 per share on last year’s profit, the Taipei-based retailer said in an exchange statement.
Advantech to sell bonds
Advantech Co (研華科技), a Taiwanese embedded computing service provider, said yesterday its board had approved a plan to sell NT$800 million in unsecured convertible bonds.
The company plans to use proceeds from the three-year debt to buy a storage center, it said in an exchange filing.
NT dollar moves lower
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday fell NT$0.043 to close at NT$29.585 against the US dollar on turnover of US$794 million.
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