Shares close flat
Taiwanese shares closed flat yesterday after bargain-hunting in the last hour offset profit-taking earlier in the session, dealers said.
The weighted index rose 6.17 points, or 0.09 percent, to 6,572.87 on turnover of NT$243.29 billion (US$7.34 billion).
A total of 194 shares surged to their daily 7 percent limit against 13 limit-down.
The electronics sector, which accounts for the biggest grouping of firms listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange, was weak throughout the trading session because of profit-taking, analysts said.
“Electronics heralded the stronger-than-expected rally … and the accumulated selling pressure on them was expected,” Chen Yu-yu (陳育娛) of Capital Securities (群益證券) said. Electronics fell 1.94 percent.
Investors switched their interest to China-related plays in the financial, tourism and asset sectors.
“A number of analysts and investors have been talking about the increased possibility of Taiwan’s stock market being boosted, [as] happened to Hong Kong, after the government lifts its decades-old ban on Chinese investments here,” Chen said.
Taiwan said last Thursday that it would allow institutional investors from China to buy locally listed stocks, in a further sign of warming ties between the rivals.
Details of the measures governing Chinese investment are due to be unveiled before the end of the month.
FSC backs East West Bank
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday approved an application from East West Bank to set up a local liaison office, which will help strengthen credit business for exporters and importers between Taiwan and the US.
East West Bank, founded in 1972, is the second-largest bank in southern California and owns 72 outlets there as well as two overseas branches.
The bank was ranked by The Banker magazine as the world’s 986th largest by assets last July, an FSC statement said yesterday.
Also yesterday, the FSC fined Jih Sun International Bank (日盛銀行) NT$4 million (US$121,000) for negligence in internal controls.
The FSC said the bank failed to detect an employee’s fraudulent check that resulted in a NT$200 million loss for the bank, as well as another employee’s theft of NT$5.2 million in invalid account maintenance charges.
The commission also issued a NT$900,000 fine to a Fubon Insurance Co (富邦產險) broker, whose sales agents were found to have received kickbacks over insurance for public work contracts.
Fubon Insurance was also required to suspend sales of construction-related insurance products for one month, the FSC statement said.
Mixed results for AU Optronics
AU Optronics Corp (友達光電), the world’s third-largest liquid-crystal-display (LCD) maker, yesterday posted NT$24.3 billion (US$733 million) in combined revenues for last month, a 10 percent rise from March but also a more than 42.6 percent decline year-on-year.
The company said yesterday that shipments of large panels for computer monitors, notebooks and flat-screen TVs grew 15.6 percent month-on-month to total 6.86 million units last month.
For small panel shipments, the company saw 16.2 percent growth month-on-month to 22.41 million units.
NT dollar strengthens
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday strengthened by NT$0.048 to close at NT$33.132 against the greenback on turnover of US$1.331 billion.
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