The TAIEX has fared better than many of its regional peers, despite expected economic headwinds, JPMorgan Asset Management Taiwan Ltd (摩根資產管理) said yesterday.
The advance of 3.47 percent so far this year in local equities compares with a rise of 2.68 percent in Shanghai, 1.82 percent in Tokyo, 0.67 percent in Seoul and 1.6 percent in Hong Kong, the asset manager said.
Foreign investors had bought a net US$2.79 billion of local shares as of the end of last week, making it the second most appealing market in Asia, only behind South Korea, which saw net foreign buying of US$3.79 billion, JPMorgan said in a statement.
Foreign investors were also net buyers in other Asian markets, accounting for US$761 million of net investment in Indonesia, US$427 million in the Philippines, US$199 million in Malaysia and US$148 million in Vietnam, it said.
Thailand was the sole market in Asia to experience a sell-off, with foreign investors selling a net US$51 million in Thai shares in the year to date, JPMorgan said, adding that ASEAN markets have on average grown more than 3 percent since the beginning of the year.
Asian stocks surged on rising hopes that US and China could settle their trade disputes soon, JPMorgan said, adding that markets were reassured by US President Donald Trump’s remarks last week said that trade talks in Beijing had brought the two nations within reach of a breakthrough in their trade relations.
While growth in the global economy is expected to slow due to divergence between major economies’ monetary policies, rising oil prices and geopolitical uncertainty, Asia might continue to grow steadily on the back of a US-China truce and Asian central banks’ neutral monetary policies, it said.
The TAIEX yesterday rose 0.80 percent to close at 10,145.28 points on turnover of NT$102.72 billion, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
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Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day