UBS Securities Ltd's Taiwan branch said yesterday that it expected the benchmark TAIEX to reach 8,700 points this year, the most optimistic forecast by far among those made by foreign market watchers.
The Swiss brokerage's revision marked its second upward adjustment within a month, after it raised its target to 7,390 points from 7,139 points last month.
UBS Securities appeared the most bullish with the highest index target for this year, followed by CLSA Ltd's 8,477 points and Goldman Sachs' 8,200 points.
The TAIEX edged up 0.51 percent to 7361.45 on turnover of NT$137.56 billion (US$4.37 billion) yesterday.
Foreign and local investors collectively bought a net NT$4.31 billion of stocks yesterday, helping the index recover from losses during the past two sessions.
Foreign investors have been strong buyers and have bought US$10 billion of Taiwanese equities this year to date in addition to US$24 billion last year, largely because of factors like MSCI's rating adjustments and attractive valuations, Ken Chen (陳安), head of research at UBS Securities Taiwan, said in his latest Taiwan market strategy report released yesterday.
"We expect retail investors to invest more aggressively in Taiwan," driven by the depreciation of the US dollar, which is likely to encourage investors to convert their deposits back into local currency and pump the funds into the local market, Chen said in the report.
The stabilizing political environment and cross-strait relations are also a significant catalyst, as both the ruling and opposition parties seem to be moving toward further cross-strait liberalization, which would give confidence to long-term investors in Taiwan, Chen said.
Other driving forces include the healthy earnings outlook, with forecasted earnings growth of 21 percent for the market this year and 21 percent next year, as well as a reasonable valuation in the local market, he added.
The benchmark TAIEX has gained 2.3 percent this month but further consolidation looks likely in the near term, analysts said.
Assets have been sizzling and bolstering the recent rally in the local market, as investors are buying into the likelihood of a further opening-up to China through direct links, which is expected to benefit the nation's real estate market, CLSA Ltd's equity strategist Christopher Wood said yesterday.
CLSA prefers asset class and banking stocks that could benefit significantly from possible liberalization, as banks could enjoy a competitive edge over foreign rivals by serving their existing Taiwanese clients based in China, if they are allowed to expand across the Strait within the next two years, Wood said in an interview.
"Taiwan will be the best performing market in Asia" if Taiwan and China can strike a political settlement, Wood said, predicting the TAIEX would exceed 12,000 points in such a situation.
The brokerage said it liked an array of property-rich stocks like Cathay Financial Holding Co (
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
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],”