■ Share prices close higher
Share prices closed 0.92 percent higher yesterday, supported by continued gains on Wall Street overnight and further purchases by foreign investors, dealers said. They said that despite the upturn, there appeared to be strong resistance around 5,900 points, with the market falling back in late trade as local investors showed themselves reluctant to push prices too far ahead. The TAIEX rose 53.73 points at 5,911.74, on turnover of NT$78.47 billion (US$2.33 billion). Declines led gains 485 to 479, with 217 stocks unchanged.
■ Shinkong to buy back shares
Shinkong Financial Holdings Co (新光金控), the nation's seventh largest financial group by assets, announced yesterday that it will buy back 10 million shares for NT$380 million between November 7 and January 6 next year. The buyback shares will be given to reward employees, the financial holding firm said. Shinkong Financial made the decision after the government announced last month to relax the rules on share buybacks by financial holding firms, cutting the required capital adequacy ratio to 120 percent at the highest from the 150 percent set last year, as part of its bid to revive the moribund local bourse. The company also announced its flagship unit Shinkong Life Insurance Co (新光人壽) will establish an office in Vietnam to tap into the growing market, where is also popular investment destination of many Taiwanese companies, the statement said.
■ Foreign exchange reserves fall
The nation's foreign exchange reserves fell to US$252.01 billion at the end of last month, down from US$253.75 billion a month earlier, the central bank said yesterday in a statement. The decline was mainly caused by repatriation of funds out of the country, the bank said, adding foreign investors were net sellers in Taiwan's stock market last month. Foreign exchange reserves at the end of September also showed a fall from US$254.09 billion over a month earlier.
■ Strips-bond trade to be allowed
Taiwan regulators will allow the trading of strips bonds worth NT$60 billion (US$1.8 billion) from Nov. 7, the nation's central bank said. The Ministry of Finance plans to issue bonds in stripped form every July 20, the central bank said in a statement on Thursday. The introduction of the strips bonds will increase investment in the bond market and provide more debt products to insurance and financial companies, the central bank said. Strips is an abbreviation for Separate Trading of Registered Interest and Principal of Securities. Coupons are separated from a note or bond and become a security.
■ Financial markets to merge
Taiwan Stock Exchange Corp and two other financial market bodies will merge to become more efficient, the Financial Supervisory Commission said in a statement on Thursday. The stock exchange company, Taiwan Futures Exchange Corp and Taiwan Securities Central Depositary Co, a securities custodian, will swap shares and merge in a holding company, the commission said in the statement. The commission will set up a task force to draft a plan and timetable for the merger, intended to increase efficiency and competitiveness, the statement said.
■ NT dollar loses ground
The New Taiwan dollar continued losing ground against its US counterpart, trading NT$0.035 lower to close at NT$33.657 on the Taipei foreign exchange market. Turnover was US$549 million.
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