Taipei - Taiwan stocks shed nearly 4 per cent in mid-morning trading Thursday, as all Asian markets slumped in reaction to overnight Wall Street falls.

Taipei - Madan Kataria, the Indian founder of the laughter yoga movement that has spread all over the world, will visit Taiwan next month to promote it, his Taiwan sponsor said Monday.

"We have invited Dr Kataria to visit Taiwan to promote the laughter yoga movement and to meet with members of local laughter clubs," Chen Ta-cheng, director of the Taiwan Laughter Yoga Club, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. 

More than 10,000 people, including Taiwan's leader, Saturday mourned late petrochemical tycoon Wang Yung-ching during a funeral ceremony in Taoyuan, outside the capital Taipei.

Taiwan stocks on Friday recovered from a morning drop-off to close higher as government funds entered the market and the South Korean market surged 4 per cent.

Chinese envoy Chen Yunlin left Taiwan Friday after a five-day visit and the signing of four pacts on expanding cross-strait ties. "I will remember the Taiwan people's concern and support," he said at a send-off ceremony at a Taipei hotel.

A Taiwan food company will take over the island's largest newspaper group, the China Times Group, it was confirmed on Tuesday.

Negotiators met Tuesday to prepare signing four pacts on expanding trade ties across the Taiwan Strait, in the first high-level talks with China held on Taiwan since 1949.

Chinese negotiator Chen Yunlin arrived in Taipei Monday for the highest-level talks between Taipei and Beijing in half a century.