Whether the local equity market can continue its strong showing this year depends on the actions of foreign institutional investors, analysts said yesterday.
Allianz Global Investors Taiwan Technology Fund manager Peter Liao (廖哲宏) said foreign institutional buying was the main driving force behind the more than 10 percent increase in share prices on the local main board last year.
The movement of Taiwan’s equity market this year depends on whether foreign institutional investors start aggressive buying in Taiwan stocks when they return from the New Year holiday, Liao said.
Last year, the weighted index on the Taiwan Stock Exchange gained 915.44 points, with foreign institutional investors buying a net NT$300 billion (US$9.29 billion) in shares.
Market capitalization of the main board as of the end of last year was NT$2.74 trillion higher than the previous year, which translated into an average gain of about NT$285,800 by each of the 9.59 million equity investors in the Taiwanese market last year.
The launch of a new series of iPhones might spur waves of replacements this year, which would benefit local high-tech stocks, such as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海), an assembler of iPhones and iPads, and Largan Precision Co (大立光), a smartphone camera lens supplier to Apple, Liao said.
Liao said that he was upbeat about the growth of listed companies in Taiwan and he predicted that their earnings would rise about an annual 11 percent.
He suggested that investors keep a close watch on the prices of flat panels and DRAM chips as continued growth of those stocks would help boost the local equity market.
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