TAIEX rises 1.91%
Share prices closed higher yesterday with the TAIEX moving up 153.25 points, or 1.91 percent, to close at 8,158.14.
The bourse opened at 8,107.22 and fluctuated between a low of 8,093.14 and a high of 8,168.47 during the day’s trading. Market turnover totaled NT$135.7 billion (US$4.34 billion).
Seven of eight major stock categories gained ground, with financial and banking stocks and plastics and chemicals gaining the most at 2.6 percent, followed by textile issues at 2 percent. Machinery and electronics shares went up 1.7 percent, and food shares moved up 1.4 percent.
Foreign investors and Chinese qualified domestic institutional investors were net buyers of NT$26.81 billion in shares.
ProMOS cutting capital
ProMOS Technologies Inc (茂德科技) said yesterday its board has approved a 65 percent capital reduction plan to improve financial structure.
The nation’s third-biggest chipmaker wants to reduce capital by NT$47.24 billion to NT$25.43 billion, it said in a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
ProMOS said the capital reduction would boost book value to about NT$8.45 per share from NT$2.9 at the end of last year. In the first nine months alone, the company lost another NT$17.96 billion.
ProMOS’s board also approved three capital increase programs, including sale of maximum 1 billion common shares, 700 million special shares via private placement and a US$5 million fund raising plan.
MOI tackles rising home costs
The Ministry of the Interior will draft a package of regulations to require information on real estate transactions be published regularly, Interior Minister Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) said at a legislative session yesterday.
The ministry would submit its plans to the Cabinet within three months, Jiang said in response to a call by National Chinese Nationalist (KMT) Legislator Lai Shyh-bao’s (賴士葆) for the ministry to make housing transaction data more transparent.
The lawmaker said the high price of housing in urban areas was one of the public’s top 10 complaints last year.
The legislature passed a resolution last year asking the ministry and the Financial Supervisory Commission to regularly publish property prices around the country, in order to prevent inflated valuations by private institutions and consequently higher market prices.
Yahoo-Kimo promotes Chen
Yahoo-Kimo Inc (雅虎奇摩) yesterday announced a management change in which Frank Chen (陳建銘) will replace Charlene Hung (洪小玲) as vice president and managing director as of Saturday.
Hung, a well-known female figure in Taiwan’s online community, has worked for Yahoo-Kimo for 10 years. She is quitting because she is moving to China with her family, the company said in a statement yesterday.
Chen joined the company in 2005 and has served as general manager of the sales group, the statement said. He is expected to lead the company’s e-commerce business and enhance online content, it said.
ASE denies M&A plans
Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc (ASE, 日月光) said yesterday it had not signed merger and acquisition (M&A) agreements with any party,
It would, however, continue to evaluate potential opportunities, the company said in a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
ASE issued the statement after the Chinese-language Commercial Times reported that ASE planned to buy two plants in Singapore and China from EEMS Italia SpA.
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