Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) reduced the TAIEX’s weight for the eighth straight quarter, prompting a downturn in the TAIEX of 0.07 percent.
The TAIEX yesterday dropped to 8,365.64 on turnover of NT$72.23 billion (US$2.23 billion).
The global stock index provider yesterday trimmed Taiwan’s weighting in the Emerging Markets Index from 12.54 percent to 12.5 percent and the weighting in the Asia ex-Japan Index from 14.87 percent to 14.83 percent.
However, MSCI increased Taiwan’s weighting in its All-Country World Index from 1.26 percent to 1.27 percent.
The revision is to take effect on Sept. 1.
JPMorgan Asset Management (摩根投信) fund manager James Yeh (葉鴻儒) said that although Taiwan’s weighting in the two indices have been cut by MSCI for the eighth consecutive quarter, the size of the downgrade of 0.04 percentage points in the indices was smaller than MSCI’s previous cut in May.
“The changes are minor and would only affect the local equity market for a short period of time,” Yeh said in a press statement, adding that the fundamental issues of corporate earnings results and industry outlook are the key factors to affect the TAIEX’s trend in the long term.
Yeh said the nation’s continual annual decline in exports and some leading technology companies’ earnings results last quarter suggested that Taiwan’s growth momentum has been slowing recently and it is inevitable that the TAIEX would be affected.
However, the summer holidays, the back-to-school shopping spree and the traditional peak season in the fourth-quarter of the year may boost the shipment performance of Taiwanese companies, which would likely stimulate the TAIEX’s performance.
In the quarterly review, MSCI did not add or remove any Taiwanese stocks from either the MSCI Global Small Cap Index or MSCI Global Standard Index.
Among the 96 individual stocks chosen by MSCI, the global stock index provider reduced the weighting of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) by 0.06 percentage points in its indices, which is the deepest cut among other individual stocks.
Weighting of Pegatron Corp (和碩), which assembles Apple Inc’s iPhone models, was increased 0.16 percentage points by MSCI, the largest increase among the stocks upgraded by MSCI.
Following the adjustments by the international stock index provider, TMSC shares dropped 1.56 percent to NT$126, with foreign institutional investors selling 4.3 million TSMC shares, according to Taiwan Stock Exchange’s data.
The stock price of Pegatron surged 2.51 percent to close at NT$89.7, with foreign institution investors buying 4.35 million of Pegatron’s shares, the data showed.
ENERGY ISSUES: The TSIA urged the government to increase natural gas and helium reserves to reduce the impact of the Middle East war on semiconductor supply stability Chip testing and packaging service provider ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控) yesterday said it planned to invest more than NT$100 billion (US$3.15 billion) in building a new advanced chip testing facility in Kaohsiung to keep up with customer demand driven by the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. That would be included in the company’s capital expenditure budget next year, ASE said. There is also room to raise this year’s capital spending budget from a record-high US$7 billion estimated three months ago, it added. ASE would have six factories under construction this year, another record-breaking number, ASE chief operating officer Tien Wu
The EU and US are nearing an agreement to coordinate on producing and securing critical minerals, part of a push to break reliance on Chinese supplies. The potential deal would create incentives, such as minimum prices, that could advantage non-Chinese suppliers, according to a draft of an “action plan” seen by Bloomberg. The EU and US would also cooperate on standards, investments and joint projects, as well as coordinate on any supply disruptions by countries like China. The two sides are additionally seeking other “like-minded partners” to join a multicountry accord to help create these new critical mineral supply chains, which feed into
For weeks now, the global tech industry has been waiting for a major artificial intelligence (AI) launch from DeepSeek (深度求索), seen as a benchmark for China’s progress in the fast-moving field. More than a year has passed since the start-up put Chinese AI on the map in early last year with a low-cost chatbot that performed at a similar level to US rivals. However, despite reports and rumors about its imminent release, DeepSeek’s next-generation “V4” model is nowhere in sight. Speculation is also swirling over the geopolitical implications of which computer chips were chosen to train and power the new
Intel Corp is joining Elon Musk’s long-shot effort to develop semiconductors for Tesla Inc, Space Exploration Technologies Corp and xAI, marking a surprising twist in the chipmaker’s comeback bid. Intel would help the Terafab project “refactor” the technology in a chip factory, the company said on Tuesday in a post on X, Musk’s social media platform. That is a stage in the development process that typically helps make chips more powerful or reliable. The chipmaker’s shares jumped 4.2 percent to US$52.91 in New York trading on Tuesday. The Terafab project is a grand plan by Musk to eventually manufacture his own chips for
RSS