The nation's benchmark index continued its upward climb yesterday on what appeared to be a slowing of the presidential recall process and Morgan Stanley Capital International's reweighting of Taiwan stocks on Monday.
Increasing investor confidence sparked the highest turnover in three months -- NT$123.4 billion -- as the TAIEX rose 190.17 points, or 3.24 percent, to close at 6,067.94.
Analysts said that because the recall motion against President Chen Shui-bian (
"Yesterday's turnover was the second trading day above NT$100 billion. If the US stock market performs well in the next few trading days after the US presidential election, the TAIEX could continue its rise toward 6,500 points," said Henry Cheng (
"The negative impact of the recall motion against President Chen has been gradually declining," Cheng said. "Part of the reason is that some KMT legislators feel that if the president is ousted, James Soong (
"Retail investors are eager to get back into the market before shares rise too high as evidenced by the high turnover."
The rebound has government officials considering a hands-off policy with regard to market intervention.
"If the TAIEX remains stable [today], and investor confidence recovers, the stabilization fund may withdraw from stock market as early as Thursday," said Lin Tzong-yeong (
"The stabilization fund has never sold one lot of shares since it was established [in March]. It's not currently suitable to sell shares in the market, and the fund has not intention of selling its holdings," Lin said.
A number of legislators visited the Ministry of Finance yesterday to learn more about the stabilization fund's operation.
"The fund's total capitalization is NT$500 billion," Lin said. "Of the total, NT$200 billion is borrowed from the banking industry by using shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (
"As of Wednesday, the value of these shares was NT$454 billion. The fund has borrowed more than NT$100 billion. Another NT$300 billion was about to be borrowed from the four government funds, but this part of loan has not been activated. If it becomes necessary to activate the loan, the fund will borrow funds from the Postal Savings Fund (
"The stabilization fund was activated three times since its establishment. The last intervention to be authorized was on Oct. 3," Lin said
DIVIDED VIEWS: Although the Fed agreed on holding rates steady, some officials see no rate cuts for this year, while 10 policymakers foresee two or more cuts There are a lot of unknowns about the outlook for the economy and interest rates, but US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signaled at least one thing seems certain: Higher prices are coming. Fed policymakers voted unanimously to hold interest rates steady at a range of 4.25 percent to 4.50 percent for a fourth straight meeting on Wednesday, as they await clarity on whether tariffs would leave a one-time or more lasting mark on inflation. Powell said it is still unclear how much of the bill would fall on the shoulders of consumers, but he expects to learn more about tariffs
NOT JUSTIFIED: The bank’s governor said there would only be a rate cut if inflation falls below 1.5% and economic conditions deteriorate, which have not been detected The central bank yesterday kept its key interest rates unchanged for a fifth consecutive quarter, aligning with market expectations, while slightly lowering its inflation outlook amid signs of cooling price pressures. The move came after the US Federal Reserve held rates steady overnight, despite pressure from US President Donald Trump to cut borrowing costs. Central bank board members unanimously voted to maintain the discount rate at 2 percent, the secured loan rate at 2.375 percent and the overnight lending rate at 4.25 percent. “We consider the policy decision appropriate, although it suggests tightening leaning after factoring in slackening inflation and stable GDP growth,”
Meta Platforms Inc offered US$100 million bonuses to OpenAI employees in an unsuccessful bid to poach the ChatGPT maker’s talent and strengthen its own generative artificial intelligence (AI) teams, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has said. Facebook’s parent company — a competitor of OpenAI — also offered “giant” annual salaries exceeding US$100 million to OpenAI staffers, Altman said in an interview on the Uncapped with Jack Altman podcast released on Tuesday. “It is crazy,” Sam Altman told his brother Jack in the interview. “I’m really happy that at least so far none of our best people have decided to take them
PLANS: MSI is also planning to upgrade its service center in the Netherlands Micro-Star International Co (MSI, 微星) yesterday said it plans to set up a server assembly line at its Poland service center this year at the earliest. The computer and peripherals manufacturer expects that the new server assembly line would shorten transportation times in shipments to European countries, a company spokesperson told the Taipei Times by telephone. MSI manufactures motherboards, graphics cards, notebook computers, servers, optical storage devices and communication devices. The company operates plants in Taiwan and China, and runs a global network of service centers. The company is also considering upgrading its service center in the Netherlands into a
RSS