Print

Mail

wiki links

TAIEX hits highest level in more than seven years

Shares continued rising into relatively uncharted territory yesterday on overnight gains on Wall Street and strong buying by foreign investors. The New Taiwan dollar also turned stronger in line with rising stocks.

The benchmark TAIEX rose rose 116.89, or 1.23 percent, to close at 9,471.30, its highest close since April 13, 2000. For the week, the index rose 3.08 percent, following a 3.43 percent increase a week earlier.

Yesterday's daily turnover of NT$238.13 billion (US$7.27 billion) on the Taiwan Stock Exchange was at the highest level in more than three years, the exchange's tallies show.

Combined with turnover on the over-the-counter GRETAI Securities Market, turnover on the nation's two main bourses hit a record high of NT$314.05 billion yesterday.

On the foreign exchange market, the New Taiwan dollar closed NT$0.031 higher at NT$32.762 against its US counterpart, after foreign investors bought a net NT$17.3 billion worth of Taiwanese shares yesterday, stock exchange statistics show.

For the week, foreign investors bought a net NT$38.27 billion worth of shares, the data showed.

"Excited foreign buying helped drive the impressive capital momentum," Prudential Securities Investment Trust Enterprise vice president Yin Nai-yun (尹乃芸) said by phone yesterday.

The impetus is expected to continue, considering the considerable fund flows on the market, Yin said.

However, an increase in the amount of margin trading could raise risk levels, the analyst said.

The balance rose by NT$5.8 billion on Thursday alone as investors rushed to cash in on the red-hot equity market.

Yin warned that overly fast growth in marginal trading could signal a potential turnaround in the bull market, and suggested that investors exercise caution as volatility increases.

One of the major performers that led yesterday's rise was the light emitting diode (LED) sector. Epistar Corp (晶電), the nation's biggest LED chipmaker, was the most active in terms of trading value.

Shares of Epistar jumped to another record high at NT$166.5 with trading value nearly doubling to NT$3.13 billion compared with Thursday, Taiwan Stock Exchange figures show.

Foreign investors bought a net 1.4 million Epistar shares yesterday on strong LED demand.

Earlier this week, Morgan Stanley upgraded Epistar to "overweight" from "equalweight," and hiked its target price to NT$172 from NT$109, citing faster-than-expected margin expansion and accelerating near-term earnings growth.

That was a result of robust demand for LED backlighting used in small and medium-sized panels and a projected growth in demand for notebook computers next year, Morgan Stanley said.

Everlight Electronics Co's (億光) shares inched up 0.39 percent to NT$129.5, while Unity Opto Technology Co (東貝光電) rose 0.15 percent to NT$44.2.
This story has been viewed 1276 times.