P.M. BRIEFING : Taiwan OKs Wider Stock Market

The Cabinet approved a long-awaited bill that will open the island’s volatile stock market to foreign institutional investors, a government spokesman said today.

The announcement, the second phase of a cautious plan to fully internationalize the stock market, caps a roller-coaster year in which Taiwan’s once-dazzling exchange became one of the poorest performers in Asia.

Acting government spokesman Liao Cheng-hao declined to give a specific date for implementing the bill.

Under the plan, foreign institutional investors--defined as insurance companies, banks and fund managers--may apply to the Securities and Exchange Commission to trade Taiwan stocks, corporate and government bonds and mutual funds.

Foreigners can now participate in the Taiwan stock market only through four funds listed in New York and London.