Shares closed more than 100 points higher yesterday on strong foreign investor buying, but no clear picture emerged for the stock market's likely movement today, as analysts remain concerned over post-election uncertainty in the US.
The benchmark TAIEX gained 103.24 points, or 1.79 percent, to close at 5,862.85. The market opened flat and closed at the highest point, with US President George W. Bush's leading his Democratic counterpart, Senator John Kerry.
PHOTO: CHEN TSEH-MING, TAIPEI TIMES
"If Wall Street is jittery over the hotly-contested election, then Taiwan's stock market is likely to be impacted," said Stanley Yeh (
Foreign institutional investors yesterday bought a net NT$13.93 billion worth of Taiwan stocks, in anticipation of a proposed weighting-increase of Taiwan shares by Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) by the end of the month.
The MSCI effect can be seen in the heavily-weighted electronics sector, which attracted buying from foreign investors and was up 3.02 percent yesterday, said Dave Chou (周顯黎), another analyst at Yuanta Core Pacific Securities.
Oil prices, Taiwan's year-end legislative elections and the verdict today on a lawsuit filed by opposition parties to suspend Chen Shui-bian's (
By and large, who is in the White House has little impact on local bourse and US-Taiwan trade prospects, Chou said.
As for how the US Presidential election results are going to affect Taiwan's economy, George Lin (
But Minister of Economic Affairs Ho Mei-yueh (
The minister further predicted that once the new US president officially assumes office, Taiwan-US economic and trade relations will improve. Taiwan is the eighth-largest trading partner of the US.
Wang Chun-jieh (
But he added that if Bush wins a second term, the two countries will be more likely to re-open the TIFA talks based on the existing model.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure