The government has no plans to activate the National Stabilization Fund (
"The [local] stock decline is a result of sagging international stock markets, especially the poor US stock performance," Chen said yesterday afternoon after the fund's committee met to discuss measures to bolster the TAIEX.
Chen, who serves as the committee's executive director, added that members of the committee, chaired by Vice Premier Lin Hsin-yi (林信義), yesterday failed to reach any consensus on the activation of the NT$500 billion fund, reiterating that the market mechanism should be fully respected.
One day after plummeting below the psychologically important 4,000-point level, the TAIEX yesterday dropped another 16.67 points, closing at 3,947.61 points.
To ease panic over declining stock prices, Premier Yu Shyi-kun on Tuesday ordered the formation of a special task force to consider measures to boost the TAIEX, which has performed the worst among major Asian markets in the third quarter.
The task force, headed by Lin and composed of Finance Minister Lee Yung-san (李庸三), Economics Minister Lin Yi-fu (林義夫) and other high-ranking Cabinet officials, concluded at Tuesday's meetings that they might activate the fund should the US attack Iraq.
Lee has reiterated many times that the government won't intervene in the TAIEX in peacetime, although concerns were also raised over foreign investors' recent share-dumping activities.
According to stock exchange statistics, foreign investors withdrew a total of US$1.12 billion in September.
The task force will also closely monitor the economic fallout trig-gered by the port shutdown on the US West Coast. If necessary it will help enterprises which have had difficulties raising capital in light of the economic slowdown, Lee said Tuesday.
Lee also said the TAIEX had dropped by 6.39 percent within a week of the US West Coast port shutdown, which began Sept. 30.
But he sought to reassure investors that now might be a good time to buy well-performing and low-priced company shares.
Lin yesterday reiterated that the nation's economy may see an upturn in the fourth quarter since exports and imports have slightly improved in the past few months.
He vowed that his ministry would seek measures to effectively boost private investment and improve the nation's investment environment to attract foreign capital.
Meanwhile, Gordon Chen said yesterday that as of Sept. 30, the stabilization fund had NT$149.5 billion in stock and had suffered paper losses of NT$56.3 billion.
At yesterday's press conference, Chen said that the fund's committee also discussed the possibility of setting up a mechanism to release its shares without negatively impacting the local market.
When selling stocks, the committee will take existing legal constraints, market stability and stock prices into account, Chen said.
"Hopefully, the selling prices will match the original buying prices to cut back losses in the fund," Chen said.
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