The TAIEX surged 151.97 to 8,052.31 yesterday, closing above 8,000 for the first time since Sept. 18. Turnover soared to NT$190.6 billion, the highest since Sept. 1.
The rise was triggered by several factors including the government's decision to double the maximum limit on investment allowed for a single qualified foreign institutional investor to US$1.2 billion. The government has also introduced measures to help traditional industries.
"It looks certain that the TAIEX will go up now that the index has breached the resistance barrier of 7,850 to 7,950," said Liang Chi-fang (梁薺??, assistant vice president of the institutional investors department at Core Pacific Securities Investment Consulting (京華證券).
John Brebeck, an analyst at Jardine Fleming Taiwan Securities, predicted that the TAIEX would reach 8,500 within two weeks.
Liang attributed yesterday's rally to both the government's announcement to double the maximum limit for any single qualified foreign institutional investor, and to the rapid rise of the NASDAQ market last week. The NASDAQ posted its 13th record close in 16 trading sessions on Nov. 19.
Analysts at security firms believed the new maximum foreign investment limit will greatly encourage foreign investors to invest in Taiwan. It will also have a long-term positive effect on the TWSE.
The government's decision to double the maximum limit on investment for any foreign institutional investor was seen by industry sources as a move to respond to Morgan Stanley Capital International's suggestion that the government speed up its relaxation on regulations regarding such investment.
On Aug. 12, MSCI announced that it would give Taiwan a greater weighting in its indexes, slated to take effect in February next year. Then earlier this month, MSCI said that it would postpone raising Taiwan's weighting because of a potential computer bug related to the leap year date of Feb. 29, 2000. However, local media reported that an executive from MSCI had said that the speed of MSCI's raising Taiwan's weighting depended on the government's quickness in relaxing regulations regarding foreign institutional investors' investments.
Analysts believed that new measures announced recently by the government to help traditional industries also boosted the share prices of companies in those industries. However, they believed that the effect of the government's measures on share prices of traditional industries is a short-term one.
The government is preparing to ease the tax burden on manufacturers in traditional industries that do not benefit from investment incentives as much as the electronic sector does. It is also using state-controlled funds to invest in traditional industries, with the hope of boosting share prices.
James Chu, an analyst in Credit Swiss Investment Consulting (Taiwan), also attributed yes-terday's rally to the intense interest in Internet- and software-related stocks. Companies such as Acer Inc or CMC Magnetics Corp have seen their share prices soar. Acer surged 6.9 percent to NT$77.5 yesterday and CMC Magnetics rose 4.3 percent to NT$145 yesterday.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained