Investor confidence was down this quarter to its second-lowest level in history, as misgivings were revived over policy uncertainty and sluggish stock turnover, a JPMorgan Asset Management Taiwan Ltd (摩根資產管理) survey showed.
The confidence gauge, compiled by the local branch of the US-based company, shed 4.5 points from last quarter to 81, with the government still struggling to end disputes over the number of national holidays and other policy issues, the quarterly report found.
The gauge was below 81.8 when the global financial crisis hit in 2008.
Overall sentiment declined despite local investors gaining confidence in the global economic outlook and international crude prices, the survey found.
“Ongoing disputes over the number of public holidays have deepened unease over policy uncertainty,” JPMorgan Taiwan vice president Alex Chio (邱亮士) said in a news release.
While the TAIEX hovers around relatively high levels, trading volume remains small, reflecting a lack of investment interest, Chio said.
The quarterly survey aims to gauge how local investors view economic, political and market developments, with scores above 100 suggesting positive sentiment and scores below the threshold indicating a lack of confidence.
The sub-index on the local economy fell 5.3 points to 70.8 and the gauge on cross-strait relations dropped 14 points to 64.9, the survey said.
The confidence reading on the stock market shed 8.7 points to 76.9, according to the survey, which polled 1,069 investors between Oct. 11 and Oct. 31.
Daily stock turnover last month averaged NT$66.1 billion (US$2.07 billion), constraining the performance of shares in companies with small and medium capitalizations, the survey said.
The situation could deteriorate this month as foreign funds are pulling out of the local market on reports that US president-elect Donald Trump called on Apple Inc to manufacture smartphones, laptops and tablets in the US, which might take orders away from Taiwanese suppliers.
Trump also pledged to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership on the first day of his presidency, making cross-border trade more expensive and difficult.
Foreign institutional players yesterday cut NT$3.74 billion net worth of local shares, raising the aggregate oversold amount to NT$102.22 billion this month, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed, signifying a continued capital outflow.
The fund flight is likely to continue as the chance of interest rate hikes next month by the US Federal Reserve heightens, stock analysts have said.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) last week recorded an increase in the number of shareholders to the highest in almost eight months, despite its share price falling 3.38 percent from the previous week, Taiwan Stock Exchange data released on Saturday showed. As of Friday, TSMC had 1.88 million shareholders, the most since the week of April 25 and an increase of 31,870 from the previous week, the data showed. The number of shareholders jumped despite a drop of NT$50 (US$1.59), or 3.38 percent, in TSMC’s share price from a week earlier to NT$1,430, as investors took profits from their earlier gains
In a high-security Shenzhen laboratory, Chinese scientists have built what Washington has spent years trying to prevent: a prototype of a machine capable of producing the cutting-edge semiconductor chips that power artificial intelligence (AI), smartphones and weapons central to Western military dominance, Reuters has learned. Completed early this year and undergoing testing, the prototype fills nearly an entire factory floor. It was built by a team of former engineers from Dutch semiconductor giant ASML who reverse-engineered the company’s extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) machines, according to two people with knowledge of the project. EUV machines sit at the heart of a technological Cold
CHINA RIVAL: The chips are positioned to compete with Nvidia’s Hopper and Blackwell products and would enable clusters connecting more than 100,000 chips Moore Threads Technology Co (摩爾線程) introduced a new generation of chips aimed at reducing artificial intelligence (AI) developers’ dependence on Nvidia Corp’s hardware, just weeks after pulling off one of the most successful Chinese initial public offerings (IPOs) in years. “These products will significantly enhance world-class computing speed and capabilities that all developers aspire to,” Moore Threads CEO Zhang Jianzhong (張建中), a former Nvidia executive, said on Saturday at a company event in Beijing. “We hope they can meet the needs of more developers in China so that you no longer need to wait for advanced foreign products.” Chinese chipmakers are in
AI TALENT: No financial details were released about the deal, in which top Groq executives, including its CEO, would join Nvidia to help advance the technology Nvidia Corp has agreed to a licensing deal with artificial intelligence (AI) start-up Groq, furthering its investments in companies connected to the AI boom and gaining the right to add a new type of technology to its products. The world’s largest publicly traded company has paid for the right to use Groq’s technology and is to integrate its chip design into future products. Some of the start-up’s executives are leaving to join Nvidia to help with that effort, the companies said. Groq would continue as an independent company with a new chief executive, it said on Wednesday in a post on its Web
RSS