Boosted by electronics shares, local stocks on Friday opened higher and rose further on the Taiwan Stock Exchange after the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 on Thursday recovered from an early plunge to end slightly lower.
The TAIEX on Friday surged 76.16 points, or 0.79 percent, to close at 9,760.88, but fell 1.3 percent from a close of 9,888.03 on Nov. 30.
Trading on Friday at one point hit a high of 9,785.20 after opening up 34.74 points at 9,719.46.
Turnover totaled NT$96.21 billion (US$3.12 billion).
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), which supplies processors for Apple Inc’s iPhones and is the most heavily weighted stock on the local stock market, ended a three-day losing streak to rise 0.45 percent to NT$221.
Shares in Largan Precision Co (大立光), a leading supplier of smartphone camera lenses, rallied 2.14 percent to end at NT$3,100, while Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), the main assembler of iPhones, advanced 0.14 percent to end at NT$69.10.
Shares in the metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor sector performed strongly, with Excelliance MOS Co Ltd (杰力) and Green Energy Technology Inc (綠能科技) ending up 6.85 percent and 8.71 percent to close at NT$117 and NT$6.24 respectively.
In the financial sector, Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控) ended flat at NT$48 and Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控) slid 0.21 percent to NT$48.15.
A Fubon Securities Investment Services Co (富邦投顧) analyst said that he remains cautious about the mid-term performance of the local stock market due to several factors, including a slowing world economy, a US-China trade dispute, the arrest of a top executive of Chinese telecommunications equipment maker Huawei Technologies Co (華為) in Canada at the request of Washington and the interest rate policy of the US Federal Reserve.
Elsewhere on Friday, Asian investors battled to finish a volatile week with some stability as they weighed the outlook for China-US trade talks and uncertainty in oil markets, while looking ahead to the release of key US jobs data.
After furious selling over the previous two days, there was some optimism after a report said that the Fed could slow down its pace of interest rate hikes next year, providing some much-needed relief to under-pressure dealers.
The general mood across trading floors was of unease, just days after the euphoria of US President Donald Trump’s tariffs ceasefire deal with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at the G20 summit that put the row off for 90 days while they try to resolve the crisis.
No sooner had the rally from that announcement run its course than questions began to be raised about the details and whether the world’s top two economies could actually resolve their differences.
That was compounded by news that the Huawei executive had been arrested in Canada and faces extradition to the US over allegations the firm had broken US sanctions linked to Iran.
The apprehension of Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou (孟晚舟) fueled concerns about already fraught relations between Washington and Beijing and the future of the trade talks.
China on Thursday appeared to try to ease concerns by saying that it would “immediately” implement measures agreed to under the truce, while Trump later highlighted progress in a tweet.
“Statement from China: ‘The teams of both sides are now having smooth communications and good cooperation with each other. We are full of confidence that an agreement can be reached within the next 90 days.’ I agree,” Trump said on Twitter.
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 on Friday rose 177.06 points, or 0.8 percent, at 21,678.68, but fell 3 percent from a close of 22,351.06 on Nov. 30.
South Korea’s KOSPI on Friday gained 7.07 points, or 0.3 percent, to close at 2,075.76, sliding 1 percent from 2,096.86 a week earlier.
The Shanghai Composite on Friday ended flat, gaining 0.71 points to 2,605.89, an increase of 0.7 percent from 2,588.19 on Nov. 30.
Sydney edged up 0.4 percent, while Wellington and Jakarta were also higher. Singapore was flat.
However, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng on Friday ended down 92.62 points, or 0.4 percent, after a late sell-off to close at 26,063.76, a loss of 1.7 percent from 26,506.75 a week earlier.
The Wall Street Journal said in a report that the Fed would take a wait-and-see approach to its decisions, as signs point to a possible slowdown in the world’s top economy.
The prospect of rates continuing to rise for some time — making it more expensive to borrow to invest in stocks — has been a major reason for selling on world markets this year.
Oanda Corp head of Asia-Pacific trade Stephen Innes suggested that markets might have overreacted this week.
“The Huawei headline could not have come at a worse time, with the market reeling as confusion reigned over the G20 fallout,” he said. “But when you laminate trade war issues with observed dovish shifts from major central banks, it merely adds a whole new level of unwanted confusion entering year-end.”
“I’m trying to suggest ... we were going through a market-driven event rather than a meaningful shift to the dark economic side that had all the ‘doom-and-gloomers’ coming out of their caves this week,” he added.
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