Taiwan's key stock index had its biggest gain in seven months after a second opposition politician headed for China, the nation's biggest trading partner, in an attempt to mend ties.
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (
The bottom for relations between China and Taiwan "may have passed and the ground has been laid for improved communication," Dickson Ho (何資文), head of research at Morgan Stanley in Taipei, wrote in a note dated yesterday. "We expect the market to react favorably to any positive developments on the political front."
The TAIEX jumped 123.82, or 2.1 percent, to 5,927.50, its biggest gain since Oct. 4.
More than five stocks advanced for every one that declined.
Futures due this month added 1.7 percent to 5,902.
Hon Hai Precision, the nation's largest electronics company by sales and which counts China as a manufacturing base, rose 2.5 percent to NT$144.50. Quanta Computer Inc (
EVA Airways, the nation's second-biggest airline, added 1.3 percent to NT$15.20. China Airlines (
"Tensions will soon be a thing of the past," said Phil Chen, who helps manage the equivalent of US$1.9 billion at Grand Cathay Securities Investment Trust Co (
Morgan Stanley Capital International Inc announced last June it will raise the weighting of Taiwan's stocks in global indexes to 100 percent from 75 percent on May 31. Investors may buy about US$4 billion of the nation's equities to track the benchmarks, analysts and investors said at the time.
"The timing is perfect for Taiwan stocks. We are seeing investors in Asian markets shifting investment to the island ahead of the MSCI index rebalance this month," said Jerry Chen, a fund manager at Taipei-based First Global Investment Trust Co (元大投信).
Overseas institutional investors bought a net NT$10.64 billion worth of shares on Thursday.
With this year’s Semicon Taiwan trade show set to kick off on Wednesday, market attention has turned to the mass production of advanced packaging technologies and capacity expansion in Taiwan and the US. With traditional scaling reaching physical limits, heterogeneous integration and packaging technologies have emerged as key solutions. Surging demand for artificial intelligence (AI), high-performance computing (HPC) and high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips has put technologies such as chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS), integrated fan-out (InFO), system on integrated chips (SoIC), 3D IC and fan-out panel-level packaging (FOPLP) at the center of semiconductor innovation, making them a major focus at this year’s trade show, according
DEBUT: The trade show is to feature 17 national pavilions, a new high for the event, including from Canada, Costa Rica, Lithuania, Sweden and Vietnam for the first time The Semicon Taiwan trade show, which opens on Wednesday, is expected to see a new high in the number of exhibitors and visitors from around the world, said its organizer, SEMI, which has described the annual event as the “Olympics of the semiconductor industry.” SEMI, which represents companies in the electronics manufacturing and design supply chain, and touts the annual exhibition as the most influential semiconductor trade show in the world, said more than 1,200 enterprises from 56 countries are to showcase their innovations across more than 4,100 booths, and that the event could attract 100,000 visitors. This year’s event features 17
SEMICONDUCTOR SERVICES: A company executive said that Taiwanese firms must think about how to participate in global supply chains and lift their competitiveness Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it expects to launch its first multifunctional service center in Pingtung County in the middle of 2027, in a bid to foster a resilient high-tech facility construction ecosystem. TSMC broached the idea of creating a center two or three years ago when it started building new manufacturing capacity in the US and Japan, the company said. The center, dubbed an “ecosystem park,” would assist local manufacturing facility construction partners to upgrade their capabilities and secure more deals from other global chipmakers such as Intel Corp, Micron Technology Inc and Infineon Technologies AG, TSMC said. It
EXPORT GROWTH: The AI boom has shortened chip cycles to just one year, putting pressure on chipmakers to accelerate development and expand packaging capacity Developing a localized supply chain for advanced packaging equipment is critical for keeping pace with customers’ increasingly shrinking time-to-market cycles for new artificial intelligence (AI) chips, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) said yesterday. Spurred on by the AI revolution, customers are accelerating product upgrades to nearly every year, compared with the two to three-year development cadence in the past, TSMC vice president of advanced packaging technology and service Jun He (何軍) said at a 3D IC Global Summit organized by SEMI in Taipei. These shortened cycles put heavy pressure on chipmakers, as the entire process — from chip design to mass