Shares closed 3.46 percent higher yesterday, tracking Wall Street's overnight gains after a fall in oil prices, dealers said.
The weighted index closed up 244.18 points at 7,309.83, after moving between 7,177.73 and 7,330.83, on turnover of NT$133.38 billion (US$4.39 billion).
It was the index’s highest close since it settled at 7,341.11 on July 7. Gainers outpaced decliners 1,986 to 286, with 325 stocks closing unchanged.
A total of 202 stocks closed limit-up and 21 limit-down. Traders said they expected shares to continue rising in the near term, adding that the index may test 7,500 today.
“The negative factors for stocks, such as oil prices and subprime problems, have either turned for the better or been priced in. It’s hard to see further downside for the TAIEX,” said Alex Huang (黃國偉), assistant vice president at Mega Securities Corp (兆豐證券).
Oil was trading at around US$127 per barrel yesterday — well down from record highs of above US$147 early this month.
Shares may extend their rebound from the lowest in almost two years as 104 companies buy back shares, Morgan Stanley analysts said.
History suggests a 75 percent likelihood that the benchmark TAIEX “bounces” higher in the next three months, Morgan Stanley analysts Jesse Wang (王嘉樞) and Jenny Tsai (蔡笛韻) said in a report on Tuesday, citing patterns during four previous periods of “high buyback intensity” by more than 60 companies each time.
Share repurchases are at their highest since at least the middle of 2000 and more are expected to follow, the report said.
Some 61 percent of previous buyback plans were executed, so there may be NT$15.7 billion of buying in the current boom.
The TAIEX has dropped 14 percent this year and last week fell to the lowest since September 2006.
Wang and Tsai wrote that the surging popularity of share buybacks was a reflection of local corporate managements’ gradual realization that “their share prices have possibly overshot on the downside.”
Compeq Manufacturing Co (華通電子), a maker of printed circuit boards used in mobile phones, jumped by the daily 6.9 percent limit yesterday after the company said it might spend as much as NT$158.4 million to buy back 12 million of its shares.
Powerchip Semiconductor Corp (力晶半導體), the nation’s largest memory chipmaker, and Yuanta Financial Holding Co (元大金控), owner of the nation’s largest brokerage, are among companies that have announced plans to repurchase shares.
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) is expected to share his views about the artificial intelligence (AI) industry’s prospects during his speech at the company’s 37th anniversary ceremony, as AI servers have become a new growth engine for the equipment manufacturing service provider. Lam’s speech is much anticipated, as Quanta has risen as one of the world’s major AI server suppliers. The company reported a 30 percent year-on-year growth in consolidated revenue to NT$1.41 trillion (US$43.35 billion) last year, thanks to fast-growing demand for servers, especially those with AI capabilities. The company told investors in November last year that
Taiwanese suppliers to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC, 台積電) are expected to follow the contract chipmaker’s step to invest in the US, but their relocation may be seven to eight years away, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. When asked by opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Niu Hsu-ting (牛煦庭) in the legislature about growing concerns that TSMC’s huge investments in the US will prompt its suppliers to follow suit, Kuo said based on the chipmaker’s current limited production volume, it is unlikely to lead its supply chain to go there for now. “Unless TSMC completes its planned six
Intel Corp has named Tasha Chuang (莊蓓瑜) to lead Intel Taiwan in a bid to reinforce relations between the company and its Taiwanese partners. The appointment of Chuang as general manager for Intel Taiwan takes effect on Thursday, the firm said in a statement yesterday. Chuang is to lead her team in Taiwan to pursue product development and sales growth in an effort to reinforce the company’s ties with its partners and clients, Intel said. Chuang was previously in charge of managing Intel’s ties with leading Taiwanese PC brand Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), which included helping Asustek strengthen its global businesses, the company
TikTok abounds with viral videos accusing prestigious brands of secretly manufacturing luxury goods in China so they can be sold at cut prices. However, while these “revelations” are spurious, behind them lurks a well-oiled machine for selling counterfeit goods that is making the most of the confusion surrounding trade tariffs. Chinese content creators who portray themselves as workers or subcontractors in the luxury goods business claim that Beijing has lifted confidentiality clauses on local subcontractors as a way to respond to the huge hike in customs duties imposed on China by US President Donald Trump. They say this Chinese decision, of which Agence
RSS