China ties boost TAIEX
Taiwanese share prices closed 1.35 percent higher yesterday as the market continued to rally on optimism over warming economic links with China, dealers said.
The TAIEX rose 88.56 points to 6,667.53 on turnover of NT$138.32 billion (US$4.21 billion).
Gainers outnumbered losers 1,831 to 514, while 115 shares remained unchanged.
The market opened high and stayed strong throughout the session.
“The market continued the rebound from yesterday,” Alex Huang (黃國偉) of Mega International Investment Services (兆豐國際投顧) said.
Huang said he expected the market to meet resistance at the 6,700-point level, with trading short of what he said is a sufficient level.
Fertilizer venture extended
Taiwan Fertilizer Co (台肥), the nation’s biggest fertilizer producer, and Saudi Basic Industries Corp has agreed to extend their partnership in a venture by up to 20 years beyond Feb. 8, 2013, the Taiwanese company said in a stock exchange filing yesterday.
The extension on the venture, Al Jubail Fertilizer Co, now depends on Saudi regulatory approval, Taiwan Fertilizer said in the filing.
The two companies each hold 50 percent in the venture, which uses natural gas to produce 400,000 tonnes of ammonia and 600,000 tonnes of urea annually.
Chinese airline to open office
China Southern Airlines Co (南方航空) has become the first Chinese company to submit an application for approval to open a local subsidiary office in Taiwan after the government began accepting Chinese investments on Wednesday.
But Investment Commission Executive Secretary Fan Lang-dong (范良棟) said yesterday that the Chinese carrier needed to fill out more supporting documents to complete the application.
Insurance covers investment
Because investors’ risk aversion has yet to recover in the face of recent market fluctuations, Cardif Assurance Vie’s Taiwan branch on Wednesday launched its revised investment-linked insurance policy to appeal to investors.
Cardif Assurance Vie is an insurance arm of BNP Paribas, the top financial service provider in France.
The revised policy features a back-end load that allows investors to maximize their gain and pay sales charges later, said Ben Ng (黃旗興), general manager of the life insurer.
It also demands less account maintenance fees and contract annulment costs, while offering a wider array of 300 funds, including exchange-traded funds, Ng said.
Air competition surging
Competition is surging on the commercial air route between Taipei and Kuala Lumpur, with four airlines are now jostling for bigger shares of the market, industry sources said yesterday.
Malaysia Airlines announced that starting yesterday, it would increase its Taipei-Kuala Lumpur flights from three to five per week, while Air Asia, a Malaysia-based budget carrier, has also scheduled five weekly flights between the two cities starting on Wednesday.
With four carriers now operating on the route, travelers between the two cities have a choice of 22 flights per week.
Local currency falters
The New Taiwan dollar lost ground against the US dollar on the Taipei Foreign Exchange yesterday, declining NT$0.162 to close at NT$32.947.
A total of US$959 million changed hands during the day’s trading.
China’s economic planning agency yesterday outlined details of measures aimed at boosting the economy, but refrained from major spending initiatives. The piecemeal nature of the plans announced yesterday appeared to disappoint investors who were hoping for bolder moves, and the Shanghai Composite Index gave up a 10 percent initial gain as markets reopened after a weeklong holiday to end 4.59 percent higher, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dived 9.41 percent. Chinese National Development and Reform Commission Chairman Zheng Shanjie (鄭珊潔) said the government would frontload 100 billion yuan (US$14.2 billion) in spending from the government’s budget for next year in addition
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