The TAIEX yesterday jumped 2.53 percent to close at 10,137.87 points, breaching 10,000 points for the first time since Oct. 12, after US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on Saturday agreed to suspend new tariffs at the G20 meeting in Argentina.
The weighted index opened higher and rose to 10,055.41 points after two minutes of trading. It continued to climb throughout the session. It ended 249.84 points higher at 10,137.87, from its close of 9,888.03 on Friday.
Turnover was NT$166.84 billion (US$5.43 billion), with foreign institutional investors buying a net NT$5.69 billion of local shares, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times
With all sub-indices advancing, the rally was led by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), the most heavily weighted stock on the local market, which closed up 4.21 percent at NT$235.
Trump and Xi agreed to suspend any new tariffs for 90 days, providing room for negotiations, but the White House said that the 10 percent tariff on Chinese goods would leap to 25 percent if Beijing does not meet Washington’s demands in that time frame.
News of the ceasefire between the world’s two largest economies also boosted other Asian equity markets.
South Korea’s KOSPI rose 1.67 percent, Japan’s Nikkei 225 increased 1 percent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index added 2.55 percent and the Shanghai Composite Index jumped 2.57 percent.
“Many firms and investors were concerned about the 25 percent tariffs targeting US$200 billion of Chinese goods that were to kick in on Jan. 1. They are shelving orders and production plans, but the truce between the US and China eased their worries,” Xincheng International Investment Consultant (信誠環球投顧) analyst Chang Chih-cheng (張志誠) said.
Local equities are likely to continue rising until the Lunar New Year, but it would be difficult for the TAIEX to breach 11,000 points unless the US and China reach a final agreement, Chang said.
“The ceasefire agreement gave investors an opportunity to take a break, but we cannot rely on it, as the trade disputes will not be eased in the short term,” Fubon Securities Co (富邦證券) executive vice president Michael Kuo (郭永宜) told the Taipei Times on the sidelines of an investment conference in Taipei.
“The trade dispute is like a cancer, which we do not know the biopsy result, if it is benign or malignant, but we can only learn how to deal with it,” Kuo said.
Fubon Securities Investment Services Co (富邦投顧) chairman Charles Hsiao (蕭乾祥) said that it is difficult for China to meet the US’ demands, as it is in conflict with China’s “Made in China 2025” policy, so investors still need to prepare for the worst, he added.
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