Share prices rose 0.68 percent yesterday to close above 7,000 points for the first time in 25 months after Beijing unveiled a series of sweeteners to boost tourism, trade and other links, dealers said.
Chen Yunlin (
At the forum, Chinese President Hu Jintao (
Foreign investor interest provided additional support for a market which has generally lagged its peers in the region, dealers said.
The weighted index closed up 47.55 points at 7,000.09, off a low of 6,950.58 and a high of 7,015.91, on turnover of NT$126.37 billion (US$3.90 billion). This was the highest finish since March 4, 2004 when the index closed at 7,034.10 points.
The paper sector was up 6.72 percent, food added 4.95 percent and textiles 4.47 percent, with tourism rising 2.82 percent as investors took the Chinese lead to buy in.
In comparison, the key electronics sector slipped 0.12 percent.
"The improved cross-strait economic ties apparently gave the broad market a boost," said Frank Lin, senior vice president with Fubon Securities (
"While there was some profit-taking, foreign investor interest still supported the bourse," he said.
He said tourism-related stocks extended their rally but did not gain as much as some other old-economy stocks, due to investors locking in profits.
"Such cross-strait factors had been priced into tourism-related stocks previously; now investors are focusing on the Taiwan government's response and the detailed rules for implementation," Lin said.
The market will also monitor further cross-strait moves, including whether any progress is made in other major issues such as direct transport links across the Strait.
Cairo’s new monorail slices across the city skyline, running above the familiar chaos of blaring horns and aging buses’ exhaust fumes that mark rush hour below. The US$4.5 billion monorail, opened this month, is among Egypt’s most prominent new transport projects, part of a debt-funded infrastructure drive criticized for sapping state finances while bringing limited benefits to most of the country’s 109 million people. “It feels like you’re in a different country,” said Ramy Sayed, a restaurant manager, aboard a driverless Innovia 300 train. “No noise, no traffic, we’re not used to this.” The eastern line runs 56km from the bustling middle-class
Taiwanese firms have increased investment in the Philippines in recent years as Manila’s ties with Washington deepen and global supply chains continue to shift away from China, an expert at the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The Philippines had not been among Taiwanese investors’ top choices in Southeast Asia, CIER Taiwan ASEAN Studies Center director Kristy Hsu (徐遵慈) said at a seminar in Taipei. However, Taiwan’s investment in the country has grown significantly since the COVID-19 pandemic, reaching US $257 million last year, a high in recent years, she said. Although Taiwan’s total investment in the Philippines still lags
Intel Corp regards Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) as a longstanding partner, as the US chipmaker would continue outsourcing production of advanced chips to TSMC, Intel chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) said yesterday. “I don’t look at people as competitors. I look at the collaboration... Nvidia is also, you know, a good friend,” Tan told a news conference following his keynote speech at the Computex trade show in Taipei. “It’s a very trusted partnership for us... We are a big, top customer for them, and we’re going to continue doing that,” he said, referring to TSMC, the world’s largest foundry
Artificial intelligence (AI) agents would supplant smartphones as the center of people’s digital lives, fundamentally reshaping personal devices and driving a major computing upgrade cycle, Qualcomm Inc CEO Cristiano Amon said yesterday. In his keynote speech for this year’s Computex trade show in Taipei, Amon said that the rise of "agentic AI" — AI systems capable of reasoning, planning and carrying out tasks autonomously — would transform how people interact with technology across phones, PCs, vehicles and wearable devices. Describing the technology as the next major evolution in computing, Amon said that "2026 is the year of agents.” For decades, smartphones have sat