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 (
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last