The TAIEX closed 0.47 percent higher yesterday, the last trading day before the Lunar New Year holiday, with the benchmark index rising 43.02 points to close out the Year of the Tiger at 9,145.35 — its highest closing since May 2008.
A total of 4.83 billion shares changed hands on turnover of NT$143.05 billion (US$4.93 billion), up from NT$140.69 billion on Thursday. Foreign investors and Chinese qualified domestic institutional investors were net buyers of NT$8.97 billion in shares, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
This was the 12th consecutive year the TAIEX ended higher on the last trading day of the lunar year. For the whole of the Year of the Tiger, the index rose 1,703.51 points, or 22.89 percent, from the Year of the Ox.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
Total stock market value increased NT$5.05 trillion, or 26.35 percent, to NT$24.23 trillion this lunar year compared with a year ago.
The market opened higher yesterday and sustained the momentum throughout the session, bolstered mainly by gains in petrochemicals, technology and financial stocks.
“Investors chased petrochemical and DRAM stocks upward to reflect rising product prices,” Sino-Pac Securities Corp (永豐金證券) said in a note yesterday.
The share prices of members of the Formosa Plastics Group (台塑集團), the nation’s biggest diversified industrial conglomerate, all rose yesterday, with Formosa Chemicals & Fibre Corp (台灣化纖) ending the day at the limit, at NT$106. Two DRAM makers, Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) and Powerchip Technology Corp (力晶科技), also closed limit-up at NT$18.45 and NT$6.99 respectively, supported by a rebound in DRAM prices.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) also rose 1.5 percent to NT$76.30, after the world’s biggest contract chipmaker on Thursday offered a positive outlook for this year. Inventec Corp (英業達) rallied 2.7 percent to NT$17.05 following its announcement on Thursday that it was subscribing to the private placement of solar-cell maker E-Ton Solar Tech Co (益通光能).
China Development Financial Holding Co (中華開發金控) and Chinatrust Financial Holding Co (中信金控) were among the most-traded financial stocks yesterday, rising 1.52 percent and 2.69 percent to NT$13.35 and NT$24.80 respectively.
Kuo Chien-cheng (郭建成), a fund manager at Taishin Investment Trust Co (台新投信), said the higher market close on an expanded market turnover signaled that investors were willing to hold on to their portfolio throughout the Lunar New Year break. The stock market will resume trading on Feb. 8.
Taishin Investment maintains a bullish view on the local bourse in the near term on expectations of continuous foreign fund inflows and a strong showing on Wall Street.
“Based on historical data over the past 10 years, the market has a 70 percent chance of moving up on the first trading session after the [Lunar] New Year holiday and an 80 percent chance of rising in the month following the holiday,” Kuo said in a statement.
In the foreign exchange market, the New Taiwan dollar rose NT$0.03 to close at NT$29.28 against the US dollar, central bank data showed.
The local currency rose as much as NT$0.31 to a fresh 13-year high of NT$29.00 versus the greenback, before paring its gains in last--minute trading on suspected intervention by the central bank.
In the year to date, the NT dollar has appreciated 3.58 percent against the US currency.
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