The TAIEX is likely to consolidate with positive bias today, as institutional investors start to build up their positions again following the New Year holiday. However, cautious sentiment might linger amid a lack of major catalysts, analysts said yesterday.
The main trading index ended up 0.42 percent to 9,307.26 on Wednesday last week on light turnover of NT$59.15 billion (US$1.86 billion), Taiwan Stock exchange statistics showed.
“The local bourse might open higher on the back of healthy fundamentals, but the room for upward rallies is limited now that it has traded above monthly, quarterly and yearly moving averages,” state-run Hua Nan Securities Co (華南永昌投顧) chairman David Chu (儲祥生) said by telephone.
Overall, the TAIEX gained 8.08 percent last year, outpacing other markets in Asia such as South Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore, but lagging behind China and Japan.
Though international research institutes have trimmed forecasts for global GDP growth this year, most agree the world’s economy is set to expand, which is good news for Taiwan’s exports, Chu said.
Chu expects the TAIEX to trade in a tight range of between 9,350 and 9,250 this week and in the first quarter as a whole due to the absence of categorical drivers, with technology companies at the low season of their business cycle.
Taiwan is home to the world’s leading contract chipmaker, chip designers, laptop makers and critical component suppliers.
Turnover might improve going forward, but not at a fast rate, Taishin Securities Investment Trust Co (台新投信) chairman Andy Wu (吳火生) said by telephone.
Institutional and professional players might take a more active approach than before the holidays, but would continue to exercise caution over their investments, Wu said.
Investors usually hold onto cash over the holidays to avoid falling prey to something unexpected.
Wall Street failed to shed much guidance in the past few days, as the Dow Jones added 9.92 points, or 0.06 percent, to move to 17,832.99 with leading US stocks barely moving on the first trading day of this year, Wu said.
It is encouraging that share markets in the US and China both performed well last year, trends that would feed further expectations of bullish markets going forward amid an absence of major downside risks on the horizon, Wu said.
“Nevertheless, investors should watch out for potential pullbacks,” Wu said.
Wu expects the TAIEX to find support at 9,300 and hit resistance at 9,593 — the highest level recorded last year.
Turnover might hit the NT$800 billion level again this week but active traders might hold off to weigh asset allocation decisions, even though the legislature approved a three-year respite on a requirement for them to pay extra stock transaction taxes, Wu said.
JITTERS: Nexperia has a 20 percent market share for chips powering simpler features such as window controls, and changing supply chains could take years European carmakers are looking into ways to scratch components made with parts from China, spooked by deepening geopolitical spats playing out through chipmaker Nexperia BV and Beijing’s export controls on rare earths. To protect operations from trade ructions, several automakers are pushing major suppliers to find permanent alternatives to Chinese semiconductors, people familiar with the matter said. The industry is considering broader changes to its supply chain to adapt to shifting geopolitics, Europe’s main suppliers lobby CLEPA head Matthias Zink said. “We had some indications already — questions like: ‘How can you supply me without this dependency on China?’” Zink, who also
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.
Tax revenue from securities transactions last month increased 41.9 percent from a year earlier to NT$30.3 billion (US$975.8 million), rising on an annual basis for the third consecutive month and marking the highest for the month of October as Taiwanese stocks continued to perform strongly, data released by the Ministry of Finance showed yesterday. Last month, the TAIEX surged 2,412.81 points, or 9.34 percent, marking its largest-ever monthly rise for October as market sentiment was buoyed by a nearly 15 percent gain in contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which accounts for more than 40 percent of the
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
RSS