The TAIEX yesterday shed 2.06 percent — or 179.26 points — to close at 8,536.22, taking cues from Wall Street and major Asian bourses, as investors around the world grow uneasy ahead of Britain’s referendum on EU membership on Thursday next week, analysts said.
The decline is the steepest since the power transition on May 20 and the second-fastest this year, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
“Global markets might see wild fluctuations for an extended period, should Britain vote to leave the EU,” Hua Nan Securities Co (華南永昌投顧) chairman David Chu (儲祥生) said.
Photo: CNA
Chu said a “Brexit” could unleash a “domino effect” that would see EU members deciding to follow suit and leave the bloc, causing the dissolution of the world’s largest trade bloc.
The “remain” camp have said that the pound would plummet if Britain were to leave the EU, house prices would fall, and London would lose its status as an international financial hub.
Turnover shrank slightly to NT$80.203 billion (US$2.47 billion), from Wednesday’s NT$84.52 billion. The market was closed over the Dragon Boat Festival holiday.
Foreign investors trimmed their positions by a net NT$5.42 billion, while mutual funds and proprietary dealers retreated NT$573 million and NT$155.82 million respectively, TWSE statistics showed.
It remains to be seen if the fund outflow is an isolated phenomenon or the beginning of a reverse trend, Chu said.
The New Taiwan dollar weakened 0.65 percent to NT$32.435 on turnover of NT$587 million in Taipei yesterday, ending eight consecutive sessions of gains, the central bank said on its Web site.
Uncertainty over the US Federal Reserve’s policy moves added to the cautious sentiment, Capital Investment Trust Corp (群益投信) said.
Investors around the world will closely monitor the comments of the US central bank following the conclusion of its two-day meeting tomorrow, although the chance of it announcing an interest rate hike is slim following the US’ recent lackluster employment data, Capital Investment said.
Shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) — the world’s largest contract chipmaker — fell 2.11 percent to NT$162, while handset chip designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) tumbled 4.35 percent to NT$220, TWSE data showed.
Financial stocks were also hit, with shares in scandal-ridden CTBC Financial Holding Co (中信金) slumping 4.36 percent to NT$16.45.
The nation’s third-largest financial service provider on Sunday called a special board meeting aimed at ensuring normal company operations and cash flows.
Anti-corruption investors have accused top CTBC officials of insider trading and other financial irregularities.
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
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six