TAIEX rises on Fed expectations
The TAIEX was lifted yesterday by expectations that the US Federal Reserve is to step up stimulus measures to boost the US economy, dealers said.
The local financial sector led the gains as investors also looked forward to the beginning of Chinese yuan-denominated business, they said.
The weighted index closed up 76.50 points, or 1 percent, at 7,690.19 on turnover of NT$88.07 billion (US$3.03 billion).
Taishin’s merger plan approved
The Fair Trade Commission yesterday approved a plan by Taishin Financial Holding Co (台新金控), a major local private financial services company, to acquire 100 percent of US insurer New York Life’s Taiwanese unit.
The commission said it gave the green light to the merger, passed by Taishin’s board in August, at a price of NT$100 million, arguing that the overall economic benefits created would outweigh the negative impact on competition in the market.
New York Life entered Taiwan in 1992 and had NT$75.8 billion in total assets as of December last year, according to the company.
AIA to inject more capital
American International Assurance (AIA), a major life insurer in Asia, announced on Tuesday its third capital injection into its Taiwanese unit in little more than a year.
The latest investment of NT$269 million follows earlier injections of NT$370 million in June and NT$570 million in October last year, the Hong Kong-based group said.
This will bring recently added capital in its Taiwanese businesses to NT$2.09 billion, it said.
The new investment is part of the company’s attempt to explore Taiwan’s insurance market, which holds good growth potential, AIA Taiwan (台灣友邦人壽) general manager Tan Kar Hor (陳嘉虎) said.
EVA plans new Macau flights
EVA Airways Corp (EVA, 長榮航空), the nation’s second-largest carrier, is launching a new route with one flight a day between Taichung and Macau, with its subsidiary Uni Airways Corp (立榮航空) from Dec. 25.
The airline will fly McDonnell Douglas MD-90 aircraft on the Taichung-Macau route, which includes 12 seats in business class and 140 in economy, it said in a statement.
EVA said it will continue to open international routes from Taichung International Airport as it is seeing demand from business passengers and tourists in central Taiwan.
It runs five cross-strait routes from Taichung currently.
Quanta unveils new product line
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) yesterday unveiled a computer server using Intel Corp’s latest low-power Atom S1200 chips, expecting the company’s new S900-X31A microserver to drive growth of server shipments.
“It is a new product line and is expected to spur new applications,” James Jau (趙晟), vice president of Quanta’s cloud computing business unit, said at a news conference.
Quanta shipped over 1 million units of computer servers last year Jau said, but declined to disclose the company’s server shipment targets for this year and next year.
NT dollar up against greenback
The NT dollar gained ground against the US dollar yesterday, adding NT$0.014 to close at NT$29.108 on hopes that the US Federal Reserve will inject more funds to boost the market, dealers said.
Further foreign institutional buying on the local bourse also added downward pressure on the greenback during the session, they said.
Turnover totaled US$691 million during the trading session.
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