Local investors are optimistic about the local bourse’s performance over the next 12 months following the signing of the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) and an easing of the European credit crisis, a survey said yesterday.
The index of local investor confidence in achieving investment goals over the next year was 28.53 points, which is in the same range as before the financial crisis, according to a survey jointly released by Shih Hsin University and the Chinese-language Business Today weekly.
However, the index showed a drop of 16.02 points from December, when the last poll results were released.
“The signing of the ECFA with China has its pros and cons. But generally speaking, the pros outweigh the cons at this time as it will improve the economies of both sides,” Kuo Min-hua (郭敏華), an associate professor of finance at Shih Hsin, told a press briefing.
International relations and the global economy will also weigh on investment sentiment, she said.
More than 60 percent of those polled indicated the ECFA, the European debt crisis, the outflow of foreign investments and the performance of global stock markets would affect their willingness to invest more on the TAIEX, the survey said.
Only 7 percent of those polled in December said an ECFA would impact on their willingness to invest, but the percentage rose to 20.6 percent this time.
The survey was conducted from June 10 to June 20 by telephone, with 1,069 valid samples. The sampling error was 3 percent.
The poll also showed an increase of 5.37 points to 46.87 points in the index of people’s confidence in maintaining their current income over the next 12 months.
Despite the upbeat mood, investment sentiment for the third quarter is on the rocks. The index of optimism on hitting investment goals over the next three months dipped to minus 21.61 points from an earlier 37.25 points, while the index of optimism on the performance of the local bourse over the next three months dived to minus 10.94 points from 47.87 points last December, the results showed.
The TAIEX closed 1.27 percent lower at 7,329.4 points yesterday. The index hit its highest mark of the year — 8,357 points — in January.
FALLING BEHIND: Samsung shares have declined more than 20 percent this year, as the world’s largest chipmaker struggles in key markets and plays catch-up to rival SK Hynix Samsung Electronics Co is laying off workers in Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand as part of a plan to reduce its global headcount by thousands of jobs, sources familiar with the situation said. The layoffs could affect about 10 percent of its workforces in those markets, although the numbers for each subsidiary might vary, said one of the sources, who asked not to be named because the matter is private. Job cuts are planned for other overseas subsidiaries and could reach 10 percent in certain markets, the source said. The South Korean company has about 147,000 in staff overseas, more than half
Taipei is today suspending its US$2.5 trillion stock market as Super Typhoon Krathon approaches Taiwan with strong winds and heavy rain. The nation is not conducting securities, currency or fixed-income trading, statements from its stock and currency exchanges said. Yesterday, schools and offices were closed in several cities and counties in southern and eastern Taiwan, including in the key industrial port city of Kaohsiung. Taiwan, which started canceling flights, ship sailings and some train services earlier this week, has wind and rain advisories in place for much of the island. It regularly experiences typhoons, and in July shut offices and schools as
TECH PARTNERSHIP: The deal with Arizona-based Amkor would provide TSMC with advanced packing and test capacities, a requirement to serve US customers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is collaborating with Amkor Technology Inc to provide local advanced packaging and test capacities in Arizona to address customer requirements for geographical flexibility in chip manufacturing. As part of the agreement, TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, would contract turnkey advanced packaging and test services from Amkor at their planned facility in Peoria, Arizona, a joint statement released yesterday said. TSMC would leverage these services to support its customers, particularly those using TSMC’s advanced wafer fabrication facilities in Phoenix, Arizona, it said. The companies would jointly define the specific packaging technologies, such as TSMC’s Integrated
An Indian factory producing iPhone components resumed work yesterday after a fire that halted production — the third blaze to disrupt Apple Inc’s local supply chain since the start of last year. Local industrial behemoth Tata Group’s plant in Tamil Nadu, which was shut down by the unexplained fire on Saturday, is a key linchpin of Apple’s nascent supply chain in the country. A spokesperson for subsidiary Tata Electronics Pvt yesterday said that the company would restart work in “many areas of the facility today.” “We’ve been working diligently since Saturday to support our team and to identify the cause of the fire,”
RSS