Taiwan Stock Discussion

[Stock]

Taiwan's assembly fails to oust Pres. Chen
(Kyodo)

Taiwan's parliament failed Tuesday to approve a proposal to oust President Chen Shui-bian from office, but the opposition said recall actions are unlikely to end.

The proposal was vetoed by the legislature as expected with only 119 opposition and independent lawmakers supporting it, well short of the 148 needed for such a motion to pass.

A two-thirds majority of the 221 members in the assembly is required for the passage of a recall.

The ruling Democratic Progressive Party, which portrayed the opposition recall motion as a "vicious power struggle," boycotted the proposal by casting no ballots.

Twelve members of the radical Taiwan Solidarity Union, which advocates independence for Taiwan, disagreed with the opposition but cast invalid ballots to distance themselves from the DPP stance.

Analysts said that although Chen, whose popularity has fallen to a record low, survived the political crisis in his life, he has inevitably become a lame duck leader with less than two years to go before his term ends.

Ahead of the parliamentary vote, opposition Nationalist Party Chairman Ma Ying-jeou made last-ditch lobbying efforts by calling for ruling DPP lawmakers to "stand for justice."

He also repeated his call for Chen to step down to take responsibility for incompetence and corruption scandals involving his inner circle.

"This is a historic moment," Ma had said. "Chen should tell the truth and the DPP should stand up to corruption instead of standing for it."

The KMT said it had collected more than 1.6 million signatures around the island seeking to unseat Chen.

Outside the Legislative Yuan, where nearly 5,000 policemen have been deployed since late Monday, a tense standoff continued with supporters of the two rival parties shouting slogans at each other, but no clashes were reported so far.

Last month, Chen's son-in-law was detained on suspicion of insider trading in shares of a land development company and of influence-peddling in several other cases.

Chen's wife has been accused of receiving gift vouchers issued by a Taipei department store, and his right-hand man has been accused of reaping returns through insider trading and intervening in bank mergers.

The recall motion has sparked political turmoil with thousands of opposition supporters taking to the streets to protest against Chen for three consecutive weekends and pro-Chen rallies taking place outside the presidential palace for two weekends.

Chen ousted the KMT from the Taiwan presidency in 2000 on a reform, anticorruption platform. He was reelected in 2004.

http://asia.news.yahoo.com/060627/kyodo/d8igap4g0.html

Taiwan dollar rises on exporters, fund inflows
Tue Jun 27, 2006 5:11am ET

(Adds closing prices, quotes)

TAIPEI, June 27 (Reuters) - The Taiwan dollar <TWD=TP> rose on Tuesday on exporters' deals and foreign fund inflows, with a failed parliamentary vote to oust President Chen Shui-bian having little impact on the local currency.

The Taiwan currency ended firmer at T$32.664 to the U.S. dollar, after opening unchanged at Monday's close of T$32.729. Volume on the main Taipei Forex Inc. exchange rose to US$725 million from US$588 million a day earlier.

"We saw more exporters than importers in the market today since it's near the end of the month," said a dealer in Taipei. "There were also foreign fund inflows, which helped boost the Taiwan dollar."

On Tuesday, foreign institutions bought a net T$1.286 billion (US$39.3 million) in Taiwan's stocks <.TWII>, which rose 0.75 percent.

An unprecedented parliamentary vote aimed at unseating Chen failed, but Taiwan's markets largely ignored the result as the outcome was within expectations.

Dealers said they were waiting for interest rate moves by the U.S. Federal Reserve and Taiwan central bank later in the week. The market expects the Fed to raise rates by a quarter percentage point and Taiwan to lift rates by 12.5 basis points.

"Some investors who were long on the U.S. dollar squared their positions ahead of the Fed meeting," said another dealer in Taipei.

"What the market is interested in is what the Fed says after the meeting because it gives an indication on whether rates will continue to rise," the dealer said.

The Japanese yen <JPY=> firmed to 116.14/19 to the U.S. dollar from 116.23/28.

On the smaller Cosmos exchange <TWD=COSM>, the Taiwan dollar rose to T$32.662 to the U.S. dollar from Monday's close of T$32.724.