A report issued yesterday by the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TAIEX) said that the number of stock accounts in Taiwan hit 12.35 million last year, an increase of 1.44 million over the year-earlier level.
TAIEX officials said 6.84 million of these were new accounts, an increase of 710,000 over the corresponding month in 1999, while the number of the accounts having transaction records increased to 4.33 million.
Male and female investors increased to 3.29 and 3.52 million, respectively, while the report also indicated that adults who have stock accounts comprised 41.24 percent of Taiwan's total adult population.
Meanwhile, in related stock market news, the Ministry of Finance said January's securities transaction tax is expected to be NT$5.65 billion, 60 percent less than the same period last year. The total trading days reduced by early Lunar New Year from next week is the cause of it.
According to the ministry, there were 13 trading days before Lunar New Year, and the total trading volume in the period was NT$1.55 trillion, including NT$1.41 trillion from the Taiwan Stock Exchange and NT$138 billion from the TAISDAQ. On average, the daily trading volume this month so far has been NT$119 billion. The total securities transaction tax revenue so far this month was NT$4.65 billion. Together with the three trading days left after the Lunar New Year later this month and a daily trading volume of NT$100 billion; it's expected the tax revenue would be NT$5.65 billion.
Ministry officials said the main reason that January's transaction tax revenue significantly lower than last year is that the Lunar New Year was in February last year and it came early this year in January. However, since the trading volume has recently been expanding, the tax revenue in February should be much higher than last year as there will be more trading days this year then there were last year.
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