The local bourse is expected to fall when the market opens today, following on the heels of the plummet in the US stock market last Friday, analysts said yesterday.
The drop should not be drastic, however, and the market will rebound quickly, Mike Chow (
The Dow Jones industrial average declined 366.94 points, or 2.64 percent, to close at 13,522.02 last Friday -- the 20th anniversary of Black Monday -- on lackluster corporate earnings, renewed credit concerns and rising oil prices.
"Factors that have existed for a quite period of time will weight down the Taiwan market for no more than two days," Chow said. "I estimate the benchmark TAIEX will fall by about 100 to 200 points on jitters."
The TAIEX closed down 0.26 percent at 9,611.72 in Friday's trading.
The US market will soon pick up its pace, rising as the Christmas holiday shopping season draws near, Chow said, adding that the local market will also benefit.
"Our prediction that the TAIEX will hit 10,000 points by the end of the year remains unchanged," Chow said.
Chow recommends investors purchase shares of electronics manufacturers, especially home electronics such as TV and flat-panel makers, which are expected to post robust sales and shipments during the peak fourth quarter.
Amid rising oil prices expected to keep fueling inflation, companies with rich assets and properties are among the top picks, he said.
Although financial stocks are expected to be hit by renewed credit concerns in the US, they should make a strong recovery as domestic consumption improves, Chow said.
With the credit abuse storm behind it, the nation's private consumption is expected to increase by 2.8 percent, according to a report released by the Chung Hua Institution for Economic Research (
The easing credit crunch, along with the improving retail sector, low unemployment rate and reined-in inflation, indicate that the nation's economy is experiencing a steady upward trend, Sophia Cheng (
The healthy economy will surely boost profitability among local companies, Cheng said, predicting that the nation's publicly listed companies may see profits grow at a compound annual rate of 20 percent from this year to next year.
Cheng played down the effect of the US market on the local market, saying the correlation between the two markets had decreased.
The bonds between the local bourse and other major Asian markets such as China, however, are getting stronger with the increasing proportion of exports to these markets, she said.
China, including Hong Kong, is the nation's largest export destination. For the first eight months of the year, Taiwan exported more than US$57.55 billion in goods to China and Hong Kong, accounting for 38.61 percent of total exports in the period, according to government statistics.
Exports to the US were US$20.31 billion, about 13.63 percent of total exports in the period, the statistics showed.
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
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
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