The TAIEX is likely to climb higher ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday next month on the back of an improving global economy and regulatory easing at home, analysts said.
The index advanced 1.5 percent last week to close at 8,535.04 on Friday, the highest close since Aug. 2, 2011, when the index reached 8,545.72 points.
Average daily turnover was modest at NT$74.99 billion (US$2.49 billion) last week, as many foreign players sat out the Christmas holiday.
“The local bourse has mostly priced in the US move to taper off its quantitative easing [QE] and focused instead on better economic data in developed nations,” said Doris Lee (李穗佳), a fund manager at Taishin Securities Investment Trust Co (台新投信), in a note.
MARKET RISE?
The TAIEX may emerge from range-trading and rise to between 8,800 and 8,900 before the market closes on Jan. 28 for the Lunar New Year holiday as foreign institutional investors return from the Christmas holiday break, Lee said.
The market is also expected to gain momentum next month as investors will be allowed to conduct day trading in a wider range of stocks.
Starting on Jan. 6, investors can buy and sell 200 stocks targeted by major-exchange traded funds on the same day.
Bevan Yeh (葉獻文), a fund manager with Prudential Financial Securities Investment Trust Enterprise Co (保德信投信), agreed that the TAIEX is to rise further as some institutional investors are due to build up their positions, barring no more bad news.
OUTFLOW CONCERN
However, capital outflows pose concerns in the wake of the US’ planned QE tapering, Yeh said.
The US central bank’s three rounds of QE programs have pushed up bond yields and lent support to equity holdings as investors look for higher returns, but investors across the world will need to adjust their portfolios next year pending major economic bellwethers and corporate earnings figures, Allianz Global Investors Taiwan (德盛安聯投信) fund manager Corrina Xiao (蕭惠中) said.
LOCAL STOCKS
Among local stocks, analysts are positive about LED companies as the sector is poised for a comeback amid growing demand for energy-saving lighting devices. Local companies involved in making Apple Inc’s iPhone may also benefit after China Mobile Ltd (中國移動) last week inked a deal to sell the handsets in the world’s most populous country, they said.
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