Now, with all the celebrations coming to an end, investors and government officials are faced with the question: What’s going to happen when Taiwan’s stocks open Monday?

That was the key topic discussed during an extraordinary meeting of the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday afternoon, called by Vice Premier Paul Chiu, FSC Chairman Gordon Chen, Finance Minister Lee Sush-der, Economics Minister Yiin Chii-ming, and central bank governor Perng Fai-nan, all of them present at the National Day parade yesterday morning.

Finance officials were expected to reach the following consensus points during the meeting: lowering the 1.425-thousandth cap for stock transaction fee, talking security brokerages into lowering the interest rate for margin trading, extending the period in which the government uses the National Stabilization Fund to salvage the market, extending the period in which a ban on short-selling is put in place, and narrowing the daily limit by which stocks can rise or fall, the United Evening News reported yesterday, citing sources.

All these measures are intended to keep the TAIEX from experiencing the same fate as other major Asian indices yesterday.

Yesterday, Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average had its biggest weekly decline on record, on concern the deepening credit crisis will push the global economy into a recession. Nikkei plunged 9.6 percent to 8,276.43. The gauge slumped 24 percent this week, the steepest decline since 1949, when data began.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index lost 7.2 percent, capping a 16 percent weekly plunge. That is the most since January 1998.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index tumbled 8.3 percent, the most since the October 1987 crash, led by National Australia Bank Ltd. Trading was suspended for 30 minutes on Thailand’s SET Index, triggered by a 10 percent slump.

Here in Taiwan, interest rate for margin trading is at about six percent. Lowering the rate would reduce the cost of borrowing money to buy stocks.

As for narrowing the stocks’ daily movement limits, FSC’s vice chairwoman Lee Chi-chu has already said her agency would not rule out that possibility.

Extending the period in which the National Stabilization Fund is used to buy stocks is another option. The government announced last month it would use the fund to intervene in the stock market for a one-month period, which expires on Oct. 17.

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