Share prices closed 0.19 percent higher yesterday, steadying in line with Wall Street overnight after sharp losses on Thursday but with the tone cautious and trade modest, dealers said.
Sentiment was hesitant following a significant foreign investor sell-off but petrochemical stocks outperformed on expectations they will be the beneficiaries of record high oil prices.
The key upcoming issue will be whether the US Federal Reserve continues to hike interest rates in the face of rising inflation pressures, in part due to rising oil prices.
The weighted index closed up 11.48 points at 6,043.95, off a low of 6,018.63 and a high of 6,054.75, on turnover of NT$56.60 billion (US$1.82 billion).
Declines led gainers 439 to 408, with 165 stocks unchanged.
"Now the focus will be oil prices on the global front and interest rate action in the US," said Cooper Liao, an assistant vice president with Primasia Securities.
While concerns over cross-strait relations following China's passage of the "Anti-Secession" Law (反國家分裂法) earlier this week will continue to cast a pall on the local bourse, investors have adopted a wait-and-see stance for now.
The US Fed's upcoming decision on interest rates and any similar measure by the local central bank at its quarterly board meeting next week will be crucial.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) was steady at NT$59.90 but rival United Microelectronic Corp (聯電) lost NT$0.30 at NT$18.90 on disappointment at the board's proposal to pay a 10 percent stock dividend for last year.
Hon Hai Precision Industry (
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At least US$50 million for the freedom of an Emirati sheikh: That is the king’s ransom paid two weeks ago to militants linked to al-Qaeda who are pushing to topple the Malian government and impose Islamic law. Alongside a crippling fuel blockade, the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM) has made kidnapping wealthy foreigners for a ransom a pillar of its strategy of “economic jihad.” Its goal: Oust the junta, which has struggled to contain Mali’s decade-long insurgency since taking power following back-to-back coups in 2020 and 2021, by scaring away investors and paralyzing the west African country’s economy.
BUST FEARS: While a KMT legislator asked if an AI bubble could affect Taiwan, the DGBAS minister said the sector appears on track to continue growing The local property market has cooled down moderately following a series of credit control measures designed to contain speculation, the central bank said yesterday, while remaining tight-lipped about potential rule relaxations. Lawmakers in a meeting of the legislature’s Finance Committee voiced concerns to central bank officials that the credit control measures have adversely affected the government’s tax income and small and medium-sized property developers, with limited positive effects. Housing prices have been climbing since 2016, even when the central bank imposed its first set of control measures in 2020, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lo Ting-wei (羅廷瑋) said. “Since the second half of
AI BOOST: Next year, the cloud and networking product business is expected to remain a key revenue pillar for the company, Hon Hai chairman Young Liu said Manufacturing giant Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday posted its best third-quarter profit in the company’s history, backed by strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers. Net profit expanded 17 percent annually to NT$57.67 billion (US$1.86 billion) from NT$44.36 billion, the company said. On a quarterly basis, net profit soared 30 percent from NT$44.36 billion, it said. Hon Hai, which is Apple Inc’s primary iPhone assembler and makes servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s AI accelerators, said earnings per share expanded to NT$4.15 from NT$3.55 a year earlier and NT$3.19 in the second quarter. Gross margin improved to 6.35 percent,
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