Daiwa Securities America Inc, wholly owned by Daiwa Securities Co Ltd, of Tokyo, received approval to acquire a seat on the Toronto Stock Exchange for 361,000 Canadian dlrs, the exchange said. Approval was granted by the exchange’s board of governors and is the first acquisition of an exchange seat by a Japanese company, it said. The purchase price is the highest ever paid for an exchange seat, it added. Daiwa acquired the exchange seat from Andras Research Capital Inc, the Toronto Stock Exchange said.

The EC Cereals Management Committee agreed in Brussels today that 300,000 tonnes of U.K. Intervention wheat would be made available for sale on the U.K. Home market over the next three months, the Ministry of Agriculture said. The committee agreed that 70,000 tonnes of wheat would be made available on April 14 followed by a further 30,000 tonnes later in the month. It also gave an assurance that a further 100,000 tonnes would be allocated for both May and June, which would complete the 300,000 tonnes originally requested by the U.

Currency futures at the International Monetary Market (IMM) are likely to consolidate near current levels in nervous trading conditions over the next few days, although underlying sentiment remains positive, currency analysts said. “Currencies are likely to muddle around these levels,” said Shearson Lehman Brothers analyst Anne Parker Mills. Traders are unwilling to establish either long or short positions in futures because of uncertainty over upcoming trade talks and U.S. trade legislation, they said.

The Securities Exchange Commission decided to allow the Midwest Stock exchange to trade 25 stocks currently listed on the National Securities Dealers Association Automated Quotation, NASDAQ, system. The SEC’s unanimous decision granting so-called unlisted trading privileges to the 25 NASDAQ securities will allow the Midwest Exchange to begin trading the issues by May 18 under a one-year pilot program. Unlisted trading privileges allow trading of stocks on an exchange other than the one on which the stocks are listed.

International Finance Corporation (IFC), the World Bank’s investment arm, will raise its investment in Malaysia to a maximum of 200 mln dlrs from current 21.2 mln, IFC chief executive William Ryrie said. He told reporters after a two-day meeting with government and private sector representatives that the IFC would be active in risk capital and equity finance. The IFC is interested in a 500 mln ringgit Sabah state government pulp and paper project and is talking to state investment holding company Permodalan Nasional Bhd about joint ventures to help transfer profitable firms to Malays.

Japanese Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa told a press conference the basic solution to currency instability among major nations is economic policy coordination. He said that is a time-consuming process as coordination does not always proceed in a way policy makers envisage. “That is democracy,” he said. Upon that foundation, Miyazawa said, there must be coordinated intervention. Major nations have sufficient funds to continue concerted intervention, he added. “Without doubt this set-up of coordinated intervention will continue to operate,” Miyazawa said.

Foreign Ministers of the Association of South-east Asian Nations (ASEAN) said they expect closer economic ties with Japan. A communique issued at the end of a two-day ministerial meeting said Asean hoped for greater Japanese investment in the region, better access for Asean products in the Japanese market and larger numbers of visiting Japanese tourists. The ministers are due to start four days of talks tomorrow with officials of the U.

U.S. Secretary of Commerce Malcolm Baldrige said he hopes Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone will make specific proposals to ease U.S.-Japan trade friction at a meeting with President Reagan this week. He also told reporters he hopes the U.S. Will soon be able to lift sanctions imposed against Japan for alleged violations of an accord on semiconductors. “We have been very specific about our trade problems,” he told a news conference during a stopover in Hong Kong.

Belgian Finance Minister Mark Eyskens said he will announce measures in the next few days making it easier for non-residents to recoup the 25 pct withholding tax levied on investment income in Belgium. In an interview with Reuters, Eyskens also said he hoped the cabinet would tomorrow approve the abolition of bourse transaction taxes for non-residents, making Brussels one of the few stock exchanges in the world where foreign investors were not subjected to such a tax.

Malaysia may cut its base lending rate by 0.75 to one percentage point from a current 8.5 pct in June to stimulate economic growth, Finance Minister Daim Zainuddin said. The last cut, of 0.5 pct, was effected by banks and finance companies on April 1 following a Central Bank directive. The lending rate has been declining in recent months because the Central Bank has injected more funds into the economy, Daim told an assembly of the dominant Malay-based United Malays National Organisation party.