■ Little changes on TAIEX
Shares closed little changed yesterday, extending Wednesday's pattern of rangebound trading as investors remained cautious ahead of the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday, dealers said.
The TAIEX slipped 7.84 points or 0.10 percent at 7,842.22 on turnover of NT$82.59 billion (US$2.5 billion). Decliners led gains 755 to 394, with 242 stocks unchanged.
■ FTC fines banks
The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) yesterday slapped fines of NT$6.2 million (US$187,900) on six financial institutions for attaching inappropriate loan clauses, a violation of Article 24 of the Fair Trade Act (公平交易法).
The commission meted out penalties of NT$1.1 million to Far Eastern International Bank (遠東商銀), NT$1.1 million for Shin Kong Bank (新光銀行), NT$1 million for Taiwan Life Insurance Co (台灣人壽), NT$1 million for Mass Mutual Mercuries Life Ltd (三商美邦人壽), NT$1 million for the Bank of Overseas Chinese (華僑銀行) and NT$1 million for the Taipei branch of Hong Kong-based East Asia Ltd (東亞銀行).
The commission also demanded that the offending clauses be removed immediately or the companies could face heavier fines of up to NT$50 million.
■ Treasury takings down
The treasury took in NT$107 billion (US$3.2 billion) in taxes last month, down by 6.2 percent from a year ago, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday.
The biggest drop came from income tax revenues, which fell NT$5.1 billion, or 20.4 percent, from a year ago to NT$19.8 billion. This is because year-end bonuses were taxed in January last year but will be taxed a month later this month as the Lunar New Year holiday falls in a different period, said Lee Li-shu (李麗雪), director of the statistics department.
Income from commodity tax shrank by 9.2 percent to NT$9.2 billion last month due to reducing tax revenues from gas and oil.
Securities transaction tax income rose 13.1 percent to NT$10.5 billion while inheritance and gift tax revenues jumped 70 percent to NT$2.6 billion.
■ New money on offer
Seven state-run banks and Chunghwa Post Co (中華郵政公司) will offer new bank note exchange services between next Monday and Friday, the central bank said yesterday.
The locations include 411 branches of the Bank of Taiwan (台灣銀行), Hua Nan Commercial Bank (華南銀行), Chang Hwa Commercial Bank (彰化銀行), First Commercial Bank (第一銀行), Taiwan Cooperative Bank (合作金庫銀行), Land Bank of Taiwan (土地銀行), Taiwan Business Bank (台灣企銀) and Chunghwa Post.
■ Hsu to lead bankers
Hsu Teh-nan (許德南), chairman of state-controlled Taiwan Coopera-tive Bank (合作金庫銀行), was yesterday elected chairman of the Bankers Association (銀行公會) in a landslide, the organization said.
Hsu takes over the vacancy left by Tsai Jer-shyong (蔡哲雄), who could no longer chair the association after moving to a new position as chairman of the Bank of Taiwan (台灣銀行) last month from his chairmanship of the Land Bank of Taiwan (土地銀行).
Meanwhile, the 58 representatives also re-elected 16 board members, including Liu Wei-sang (劉衛桑), president of The Chinese Bank (中華商銀).
■ Corning expanding in Japan
Corning Inc, the world's biggest maker of glass for liquid-crystal displays, plans to spend US$160 million to expand manufacturing capacity in Japan.
The costs will be incurred in the next year and a half, and glass-substrate production will begin next year, the company said in a statement on Wednesday.
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