Retail investors have returned to Taiwan’s stock market, raising their equity investments in the first half of this month, which in turn helped boost average daily turnover, the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) said.
The commission said that official data showed the average daily investment by retail investors between Feb. 2 and Tuesday was NT$23.82 billion (US$773.98 million) higher than last month’s average at NT$60.43 billion.
Foreign institutional investors also increased their investment in the nation’s equity market over the same period, as the data showed that foreign investors parked a daily average of NT$34.65 billion on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE), up from a daily average of NT$21.2 billion last month.
The exchange’s average daily turnover hit NT$113.01 billion during that period, compared with about NT$70 billion last month.
Retail investors accounted for 53.48 percent of total turnover, up from 52.3 percent, while foreign institutional investors made up 30.66 percent, up from 30.4 percent, the commission said.
According to the TWSE, the aggregate turnover on Taiwan’s stock market totaled NT$18.9 trillion last year, the lowest in 15 years.
It was also the third consecutive year in which annual turnover has fallen. Average daily turnover was about NT$75.5 billion last year, down more than 18 percent from a year earlier, the data showed.
Since the end of the Lunar New Year holiday, the TWSE has made a strong showing on the back of rising enthusiasm from retail investors and their institutional counterparts, and the TAIEX gained 270.83 points, or 2.79 percent, between Feb. 2 and Tuesday.
Since Wednesday, the main bourse has continued to gain, with the TAIEX passing 9,800 at one point. Since the beginning of this month, the TAIEX has risen 311.81 points, or 3.30 percent, to close at 9,759.76 yesterday.
Analysts said that Taiwanese investors operating in China have rushed to repatriate their funds and pour money into the local bourse ever since Chinese authorities started to crack down on tax evasion by foreign investors.
Securities and Futures Bureau Deputy Director Chang Chen-shan (張振山) said the increase in turnover on the local equity market showed that investors have faith in Taiwan’s economic fundamentals.
The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics on Wednesday raised its GDP forecast for the nation to 1.92 percent this year, from its 1.87 percent forecast in November last year.
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