■ TAIEX posts small gain
Share prices closed up 0.27 percent yesterday, but early gains made on Wall Street's advance overnight were eroded by profit-taking, dealers said.
Investors were unwilling to chase prices higher, preferring to wait for the outcome of the US Federal Reserve's policy meeting before making any further orders, dealers said.
The weighted index was up 20.83 points at 7,757.03, after trading between 7,746.35 and 7,784.19, on turnover of NT$85.07 billion (US$2.57 billion).
Oliver Fang, an assistant vice president at Yuanta Core Pacific Securities (元大京華證券), said there was really no reason to trade aggressively ahead of the Fed's rate decision.
"Investors became even more reluctant to step away from the sidelines," he said.
■ Chi Mei, Hon Hai team up
Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp (奇美電子), the nation's second-largest flat panel maker, said yesterday it would set up a joint venture with Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), the world's largest contract electronics parts manufacturer, to produce components used in liquid-crystal displays (LCDs).
A Chi Mei spokeswoman said each firm would invest US$14 million to take a 45 percent stake in the new company, named Ampower Holding, but declined to identify other partners for the remaining 10 percent.
"The joint venture is aimed at manufacturing inverters for backlight modules used in LCDs," she said, declining to comment on reports that the new operations would be set up in China.
Chi Mei operates a LCD module production complex in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, and is building another one in Foshan, Guangdong Province.
■ BenQ cancels 60m shares
BenQ Corp (明基), the nation's largest manufacturer of branded consumer electronics, canceled 2.3 percent of the shares it bought back about three years ago.
About 60 million shares were canceled, leaving BenQ with 2.56 million shares outstanding, the Taoyuan-based company said in a statement yesterday. The shares were worth about NT$801 million at yesterday's closing price of NT$13.35.
BenQ posted a record loss of NT$27.6 billion last year on falling mobile handset sales after the company failed to turn around a German unit. With a loss of NT$5.2 billion in 2005, the deficit in the past two years wiped out any profit the company has made since 1999.
By law, companies must cancel shares they bought back within three years if they haven't sold them to employees.
■ Foreign direct investment falls
Foreign direct investment during the first two months of the year amounted to US$437.90 million, down a sharp 77.3 percent year-on-year, the Investment Commission said on Tuesday.
A total of 238 direct investment applications filed by foreign firms and overseas businesses operated by ethnic Chinese or Taiwanese expatriates were approved during the first two months of the year, a commission official said.
The official attributed the decrease in foreign direct investment mainly to Royal Philips Electronics NV's sale of its Taiwanese subsidiary's stake in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電).
Excluding the Philips' transaction, total foreign direct investment in the first two months would be up 163 percent year-on-year, the official said.
■ NT dollar gains ground
The New Taiwan dollar gained ground against the US dollar on the Taipei Foreign Exchange yesterday, rising NT$0.019 to close at NT$33.106 on turnover of US$852 million.
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