Shares follow Wall Street dive
Share prices closed 2.7 percent lower yesterday, tracking Wall Street's latest dive, as worse-than-expected US jobs data heightened fears of a recession in the world's largest economy, dealers said.
The weighted index closed down 232.01 points at 8,299.37 after moving between 8,286.57 and 8,507.29 on turnover of NT$145.76 billion (US$4.8 billion).
Hardest hit by profit-taking were stocks that had rallied previously on expectations that cross-strait relations would improve after the presidential election next Saturday, dealers said.
"Today's selling pressure was indeed a bit greater than what we expected," Taiwan International Securities (金鼎證券) analyst Arch Shih (施博元) said.
"Such a belated sell-off could be best explained by Taipei's relative outperformance in previous sessions," he said.
Shih said technical analysts expected a test of near-term support at around 8,229 points, saying whether it can hold there "will determine Taipei's chances of decoupling" from the US and other markets.
CPC says stockpiles adequate
CPC Corp (中油), Taiwan, the nation's state-owned oil refiner, said its output of gasoline and diesel was enough to cover customer demand.
The company was to restart a unit at its Taoyuan refinery yesterday, adding 5,000 kiloliters of gasoline to daily capacity, CPC spokesman Liao Tsang-long (廖滄龍) said by telephone from Taipei.
Gasoline stockpiles are equivalent to 63 days of sales, he said, denying a media report that they had dropped to less than three weeks' demand.
CPC, which controls about 75 percent of the nation's gasoline and diesel market, may increase gasoline exports after the resumption of output at the Taoyuan residue fluid catalytic cracker, said Liao, who declined to confirm the number of gasoline-making units currently shut.
``Our stockpiles are at a high level,'' he said. ``We'll export if we don't want to keep so much inventory.''
The company produces 18,000 kiloliters of the fuel a day, higher than customer demand of 12,000 kiloliters, he said.
Air fares rise: survey
The prices of first-class airplane tickets in the country rose 12 percent in the fourth quarter last year from one quarter earlier, as the nation's average ticket cost edged up 2 percent quarter-on-quarter, a survey by American Express said yesterday.
First-class ticket prices to the US saw the highest growth of 19 percent year-on-year, while business class tickets rose 3 percent and economy class tickets dropped 2 percent.
The credit card issuer's business travel survey showed that air fare in the Asia-Pacific region also rose 1 percent, lower than the 3 percent quarter-on-quarter increase in the third quarter last year.
Tax removed for a year
The government has scrapped a value-added tax on imported wheat, corn, barley and soybeans, as rising food prices threaten to stoke inflation.
The tax will be removed for a one-year period, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday in a statement on its Web site.
Club members offered deal
Former chairwoman of Alexander Group (亞力山大), Candy Tang (唐雅君), said yesterday she had made a deal with several new buyers, including Action Life (亞健康), to partially honor old membership in 11 Alexander branches.
Former Alexander members will pay an extra NT$1,200 to be able to use the facilities of the newly opened Action Life, which charges new members a monthly fee of NT$3,800, she said.
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