Share price losses reversed
The TAIEX closed 0.29 percent higher yesterday as bargain hunting reversed early losses after weakness on Wall Street overnight, dealers said.
The index rose 21.00 points to 7,345.22 on turnover of NT$96.12 billion (US$2.97 billion).
Gainers outnumbered losers by 1,181 to 1,112, with 242 stocks unchanged.
The market opened down 0.35 percent as investors took their cue from Wall Street’s losses, but buying followed after the index fell below 7,300 points, dealers said.
The financial sector led the upside on rotational buying, President Securities (統一證券) analyst Vickie Hsieh (謝雯霞) said.
“I suspect the buying came largely from local institutional investors in an attempt to dress their books with the current quarter coming to an end,” Hsieh said.
Chinatrust to raise funds
Chinatrust Financial Holding Co (中信金控), which owns the nation’s largest credit card issuer, said yesterday it would raise up to US$200 million for its US subsidiary to improve the unit’s financial structure and strengthen its capital adequacy ratio.
In a stock exchange filing, Chinatrust Financial said its board approved the capital enhancement proposal for Chinatrust Bank (USA).
This was the second time this year Chinatrust Financial has acted to raise capital for its US subsidiary — it raised US$130 million in March — which suffered losses because of the US subprime mortgage crisis.
Chinatrust Financial said the capital would be raised in two stages. It would first subscribe for 1,593 common shares issued by another US subsidiary, Chinatrust Capital Corp. Then, Chinatrust Capital would use the proceeds to improve the balance sheet at Chinatrust Bank (USA), the filing said.
Investments sharply down
Approved major investments in Taiwan by local listed and over-the-counter companies were down sharply in the first eight months of this year, as the sector bore the brunt of the global economic recession that has only begun to ease in recent months, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said on Thursday.
Major private investment totaled NT$406.5 billion (US$12.55 billion) between January and August, reaching only about 40 percent of the target for the entire year, or NT$1.001 trillion, Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Lin Sheng-chung (林聖忠) said.
The lowest point was recorded in January, with only NT$25.9 billion in new investment, compared with the monthly average of NT$90 billion posted in the years prior to last year, Lin said.
He estimated, however, that investment would increase more noticeably in the fourth quarter, which will enable the final total for the year to reach about 80 percent of the annual target.
ECCT appoints new CEO
The board of the European Chamber of Commerce Taipei (ECCT) has appointed Freddie Hoeglund as its new chief executive officer, who will take up his new position on Nov. 2, the European trade body said in a statement issued on Monday.
Freddie Hoeglund is currently in Shanghai, where he serves as general manager of IWNC, a human resources consulting company. He previously spent 19 years in Taiwan when he worked for the Learning Technologies Group, the statement said.
NT dollar loses ground
The New Taiwan dollar lost ground against the US dollar on the Taipei Foreign Exchange yesterday, declining NT$0.033 to close at NT$32.428. A total of US$723 million changed hands during the day’s trading.
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