Shares close higher
Taiwanese shares closed 0.12 percent higher yesterday, while gains were capped by profit-taking after recent rallies, dealers said.
The weighted index rose 6.15 points to 5,047.54 on turnover of NT$119.43 billion (US$3.51 billion).
Gainers outnumbered losers 975 to 884, while 161 stocks remained unchanged. A total of 54 shares surged to their daily 7.0 percent limit, against nine limit-down.
“There is bigger possibility of fall in shares tomorrow. Selling is likely to emerge as investors have no need to support the spot after the settlement in futures,” Hua Nan Securities Investment (華南永昌投顧) trader Henry Miao (苗台生), told Dow Jones Newswires.
Kaohsiung entices green firms
Taiwan will offer rent discounts of as much as 50 percent at Kao-hsiung Software Park as it seeks to attract more environmentally friendly industries to the southern city, currently dominated by steelworks and power plants.
The offer will run for the first three years of a tenancy, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a statement on its Web site yesterday.
It made the announcement as it opened a tender covering a total of 37,002m2 of land.
Taiwan has set aside 7.9 hectares of land for the Kaohsiung Software Park as it seeks to revive the local economy.
The park, which has already won backing from Hon Hai Precision Industry Co, will be fitted with a wireless network and double electricity grids to ensure high-speed access to the Internet and a steady power supply.
China rail eyes THSRC share
China Railway Construction Group Corp (中鐵建設集團), a major contractor in China, is said to have publicly expressed an interest in investing 2 billion yuan (US$292.58 million) in Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp (THSRC, 台灣高鐵) and take a seat on the THSRC board, Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post.
Ken Hung (洪義乾), chief executive officer of Continental Engineering Corp (CEC, 大陸工程), the major shareholder of THSRC, said China Railway had not approached CEC about this matter, but China Railway’s attempt to invest in THSRC would not affect CEC. In response, THSRC said it welcomed any world-class investors to join the company if the government agreed.
Fitch warns on loans
Companies in China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan face higher refinancing risks than peers in the rest of the Asia-Pacific region because they’re “over-reliant” on bank loans, Fitch Ratings said.
About half of the 145 Asia-Pacific companies rated by Fitch are “particularly reliant upon continuing good banking relationships” or state ownership to meet debt obligations due next year, the ratings assessor said in a report yesterday.
Forty-five percent of the US$730 billion in rated Asia-Pacific corporate debt due by the end of 2012 is funded by bank loans, compared with 38 percent in Europe and Africa, Fitch Ratings said.
Companies’ “dependence on the ongoing provisions of short- term uncommitted financing is clearly a potential weakness for Asian corporates as, in the event of financial distress, short-term uncommitted bank funding can be cut or prove to be suddenly prohibitively expensive when needed,” the Fitch Ratings report said.
NT dollar gains on greenback
The US dollar lost ground against the New Taiwan dollar on the Taipei Foreign Exchange yesterday, falling NT$0.122 to close at NT$34.156. Turnover was US$1.11 billion.
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