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To: AJ Berger who wrote (5811)	8/12/1999 3:25:00 PM
From: DJBEINO	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9582

MSCI boosts Taiwan stock weighting to 100 pct TAIPEI, Aug 12 (Reuters) - Morgan Stanley Capital International Inc said on Thursday it would raise Taiwan's weighting in the MSCI series of indices to 100 percent from 50 percent. ''The weight of the market capitalisation of the MSCI Taiwan Index will be increased from 50 percent to 100 percent in the MSCI Emerging Markets Free Index series and the MSCI All Country Free index series including the MSCI AC Far East Free ex-Japan Index,'' MSCI said in a news release. Morgan Stanley noted Taiwan's government had raised its cap on stock ownership by any foreign individual to 50 percent from 15 percent and total foreign ownership to 50 percent of total market value from 30 percent. Taiwan raised both ceilings in February. ''Although this is not yet a total liberalisation of the market, similar limitations exist in other emerging markets,'' the statement said. The operational burden facing foreign investors in Taiwan was ''comparable'' to emerging markets that had a full weighting, it said. Analysts said the news would give a strong boost to Taiwan's stock market. ''This is very positive news to the market,'' said Ben Chen, chief investment officer at Hung Tai Capital Management. Leonard Hsueh, head of research at SinoPac Securities, agreed the index would rise on Friday, but said political uncertainty surrounding Taiwan-China relations would prevent foreign investors from sharply increasing their weighting immediately. Both Hsueh and Chen said Taiwan's main TAIEX (^TWII - news) index, which ended 1.4 percent higher at 7,330.24 on Thursday, would likely break the 7,500 threshold on Friday. ''This is certainly a short-term positive factor. It's good for sentiment,'' Hsueh said. ''But foreign funds are unlikely to jump in to double their weighting as long as political uncertainty remains.'' The TAIEX has fallen about 1,000 points since Taiwan triggered a heated dispute with China last month by demanding to be treated as a political equal. biz.yahoo.com