Shares stage technical rebound
Shares on the Taiwan Stock Exchange staged a technical rebound yesterday to push the benchmark index back above the 7,100-point mark following seven consecutive losing sessions amid concerns over weakness in the domestic and global economy, dealers said.
Buying was seen almost across the board as investors scrambled to pick up bargains, but the gains were limited after the TAIEX briefly breached 7,200 points, they said.
The TAIEX closed up 90.92 points, or 1.28 percent, at 7,182.59, on turnover of NT$68.08 billion (US$2.32 billion).
Bank to auction CDs
The central bank said yesterday it would auction NT$100 billion (US$3.44 billion) in 364-day certificates of deposit (CDs) on Friday, marking its 32nd such sale since April 2010, as it seeks to absorb excess funds in the market.
The bank, which now has NT$1.2 trillion in outstanding 364-day CDs, said its sale of such instruments over the last 31 months was the equivalent of increasing the bank reserve requirement ratio by 4.5 percentage points.
Meanwhile, domestic financial institutions have been continuously increasing their purchases of government bonds to avoid high-risk stock market investments, as the latest bond auction on Monday showed the central government sold NT$30 billion in 20-year bonds at a yield of 1.58 percent, the lowest ever, with the sale attracting bids for 1.73 times the amount of bonds on offer, the central bank said in a statement.
Employers freezing salaries
About 80 percent of employers in the manufacturing and service sectors froze employee salaries last year, while the number of layoffs also increased due to slow economic growth, according to statistics released by the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) yesterday.
Only about 21.8 percent of businesses in the manufacturing and service sectors provided pay increases last year, an increase of 4 percentage points from the same period of 2010, the DGBAS said.
In addition, about 4.1 percent of employees in these sectors were laid off last year, up from 3.5 percent in the previous year, the statistics showed.
Officials said the layoffs occurred mainly in the fourth quarter because of slower economic growth compared with the year’s previous quarters.
Chain chairman admired
Steve Day (戴勝益), the chairman of restaurant chain Wowprime Corp (王品集團), is the executive in Taiwan most admired for his management style, according to the results of a survey released by an online manpower agency on Monday.
In the 1111 Job Bank survey, Day emerged as the corporate leader with the most admired management style, getting the support of 50.5 percent of respondents, who were allowed to choose more than one executive.
Following Day was Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) chairman Morris Chang (張忠謀), chosen by 38.61 percent of respondents, while 27.72 percent said they liked Yulon Group (裕隆集團) chairman Kenneth Yen (嚴凱泰).
The survey was conducted between Oct. 11 and Oct. 25 via e-mail. A total of 1,121 effective samples were collected, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.92 percentage points.
NT dollar strengthens
The New Taiwan dollar strengthened against the US dollar yesterday, edging up NT$0.014 to close at NT$29.278 as a rebound staged by the local bourse boosted demand for the local currency, dealers said. Turnover totaled US$494 million during the trading session.
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