Stocks flatten over Chen speech
Taiwan share prices closed flat yesterday, with investors sidelined ahead of President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) speech over the weekend marking the seventh anniversary of his inauguration, dealers said.
While select stocks managed rotational buying interest, the broad market featured extremely light turnover amid concerns over the impact of Chen's remarks on cross-strait relations, they said.
The weighted index closed up 13.54 points, or 0.17 percent, at 7,988.57, having traded in a range between 8,014.88 and 7,978.25 on turnover of NT$66.09 billion (US$20 billion).
President Securities Corp (統一證券) manager Johnny Lee said investors refrained from any aggressive moves due to the lack of any fresh major leads.
"Investors stayed on the sidelines as they wait to see how events on the political front play out," Lee said.
Select stocks in the raw material segment benefited from higher product prices, but Lee expected range-bound consolidation to continue to dominate the local bourse in the near term.
Property deals down
Property transactions cooled in the first quarter of the year, with the number of deals dropping to 105,277, down 8.3 percent from the previous quarter, because of high housing prices and slow seasonality, a survey by Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房屋) said yesterday.
Taipei City was the only market in the nation's metropolitan areas that saw an upside during the January-March period, with the transaction number increasing 2.6 percent to 17,422 deals and the average sale price steady at NT$367,000 per ping (3.3m2), supported by a scarcity of land and continuing strong demand, Evertrust Rehouse said.
The northern part of Taiwan consisting of Taipei City, Taipei County and Taoyuan County remained the busiest property market, accounting for 52.2 percent of the nation's property transactions, it said.
Taoyuan, however, experienced a decline in deals for two consecutive quarters to 10,940, down 20 percent from the previous quarter, the largest fall in all markets, because of a supply glut that could continue to overshadow its outlook, the housing agency said.
Vietnam delegation on the way
Vietnam's Ministry of Finance will send a delegation to Taiwan late this month to visit major financial institutions and gain a better understanding of Taiwan's financial development, an official with the Financial Supervisory Commission said yesterday.
The official said that Vietnam expressed interest in sending officials to Taiwan to Vice Chairwoman Susan Chang (張秀蓮) when she visited Vietnam's State Bank, the Ministry of Finance and the State Security Commission this month to exchange views with Vietnam on bilateral cooperation in securities.
Chang was also invited by the Taiwan Financial Services Roundtable delegation, which has 28 top domestic managers, to visit Vietnam.
Chang suggested that Vietnam provide clear timelines and transparent approval procedures for opening its financial market.
Vietnam became the 150th member of the WTO in January.
Chang also said she hoped Vietnam would make further opening of its financial market a top priority, the official said.
NT dollar strengthens
The New Taiwan dollar gained ground against the US dollar on the Taipei Foreign Exchange yesterday, increasing NT$0.004 to close at NT$33.331.
A total of US$1.013 billion changed hands during the day's trading.
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