The TAIEX closed moderately higher yesterday, but turnover continued to fall, as foreign institutional investors were away from the trading floor due to the Christmas holiday, dealers said.
Large-cap stocks recouped earlier losses, led by contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which helped the broader market recover from an earlier low, the dealers said.
The TAIEX ended up 31.75 points, or 0.27 percent, at 12,008.13, after moving between 11,973.95 and 12,032.37, on turnover of NT$90.692 billion (US$3 billion).
The market opened up 2.56 points and continued to move in a narrow range as US markets appeared lackluster, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling 0.13 percent and the tech-heavy NASDAQ Composite closing up 0.08 percent overnight in a curtailed session before Christmas Day, the dealers said.
However, buying emerged later, targeting market heavyweights in both the electronics and non-tech sectors, lifting the TAIEX out of the doldrums and breaching 12,000 points by the end of the trading session, they said.
“With many foreign institutional investors away for the holiday, it was no surprise that the local main board remained quiet today and turnover fell further,” Mega International Investment Services Corp (兆豐國際投信) analyst Alex Huang (黃國偉) said.
Trading volume stood at NT$104.13 billion a day earlier.
After small fluctuations for most of the trading session, the market became slightly more active about 30 minutes before the close, with heavier buying targeting large-cap stocks, Huang said.
“I think the purchases partly came from local institutional investors who were holding a large chunk of long-position futures contracts and wanted to see the TAIEX move higher so that they could profit from them,” Huang said.
“The best way to prop up the index was to buy into big guys, like TSMC,” he added.
TSMC, the most heavily weighted stock in the local market, rose 0.30 percent to close at NT$333.00 after coming off a low of NT$331.00.
A total of 10.15 million shares changed hands yesterday, which was shy of Tuesday’s more than 13 million shares.
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