Weak trading volume on the local stock exchange was caused by the Christmas holiday season, which has seen local and foreign institutional investors taking breaks from their work, Financial Supervisory Commission Chairman William Tseng (曾銘宗) said yesterday.
The TAIEX rose 0.47 percent to 8,363.28 as trading volume shrank to a new annual low of NT$40 billion (US$1.21 billion) this year, compared with NT$60 billion in the previous session.
With few trading sessions left in the year and average daily turnover estimated to remain at NT$117 billion, it is unlikely that Tseng’s annual turnover target of NT$120 billion to NT$130 billion would be reached.
It is normal to see both local and foreign institutional investors absent from the trading floor during holidays, Tseng told reporters ahead of an awards ceremony at the Joint Credit Information Center in Taipei.
“The removal of the capital gains tax on Friday [next week] will be a key catalyst to push the local bourse toward the turnover target,” Tseng said.
Hua Nan Securities Co (華南永昌證券) analyst Kevin Su (蘇俊宏) told CNA that yesterday’s trading volume was lower than the NT$55.8 billion on Christmas Day last year.
“I think that market sentiment has been haunted by political uncertainty ahead of next month’s presidential election, thus many investors appear reluctant to chase prices for now,” CNA quoted Su as saying.
It is no longer appropriate for the National Stabilization Fund to remain active, as the TAIEX has been holding above 8,000 points after it tumbled sharply to 7,410 points in August, Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (台經院) president Jeff Lin (林建甫) said earlier in the day.
Tseng declined to comment on the workings of the fund, saying only that he is not concerned about the TAIEX’s performance next year and expects trading momentum to pick up shortly after the international holidays.
As of Tuesday, foreign capital inflows totaled US$193.3 billion, compared with US$193 billion as of Thursday last week and US$194.5 billion as of Nov. 30, according to the commission’s data.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
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