The TAIEX surged 99.86 points, or 1.05 percent, higher to 9,629.37 yesterday, the first trading day after the Lunar New Year holiday, as the local bourse sought to catch up with the global stock market rally, analysts said.
However, the stock rally failed to boost the local currency, which weakened 0.2 percent to NT$31.688 against the greenback in Taipei trading, the central bank said on its Web site, as the US economic recovery continued to lend support to its currency.
Foreign and domestic equity investors, who turned cautious prior to the holiday, breathed a sigh of relief now that Greece has secured a four-month extension for its debts, Marbo Securities Consulting Co (萬寶證券投顧) analyst Winson Wang (王榮旭) said by telephone.
Photo: David Chang, EPA
As concern over Greece’s debt crisis and geopolitical uncertainty elsewhere eased, foreign institutional players bought a net NT$10.97 billion (US$346.2 million) of Taiwanese shares, while proprietary traders and mutual funds had net purchases of NT$619.48 million and NT$592.39 million respectively, Wang said, citing Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) figures.
Technology and financial shares led the surge, with the semiconductor sub-index rising 1.35 percent, telecom plays climbing 1.6 percent, and financial and insurance stocks advancing 1.39 percent, TWSE statistics showed.
Hua Nan Securities Co (華南永昌投顧) chairman David Chu (儲祥生) said it was financial shares’ turn to grab the spotlight after taking a backseat earlier.
Semiconductor stocks continued to shine, thanks to their leading global technology edge, Chu said.
Trading volume expanded to NT$109.04 billion yesterday, compared with NT$76.75 billion on Feb. 13, the last session before the lunar holidays.
Wang and Chu said the TAIEX is likely to continue rising, but at a slower pace for the rest of the week.
US Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen was scheduled to testify before the US Congress yesterday and today, and investors would closely monitor her speech for clues on the Fed’s timetable for an interest rate hike, Wang said.
Investors are also bracing for likely lackluster corporate earnings this months due to fewer working days and a slower season.
“Apart from the risks, the landscape looks generally clear and bright ahead,” Wang said.
Meanwhile, the New Taiwan dollar might hover between NT$31.6 and NT$31.7 in the short term, traders said.
The NT dollar has little room to strengthen, given an ongoing soft patch for currencies in Japan, South Korea and China, Taiwan’s main trading rivals, a trader in a local bank said.
Turnover for the local currency stood at US$877 million on Taipei Forex Inc and US$588 million on the smaller Cosmos Foreign Exchange Market, data showed.
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) is expected to miss the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump on Monday, bucking a trend among high-profile US technology leaders. Huang is visiting East Asia this week, as he typically does around the time of the Lunar New Year, a person familiar with the situation said. He has never previously attended a US presidential inauguration, said the person, who asked not to be identified, because the plans have not been announced. That makes Nvidia an exception among the most valuable technology companies, most of which are sending cofounders or CEOs to the event. That includes
TARIFF TRADE-OFF: Machinery exports to China dropped after Beijing ended its tariff reductions in June, while potential new tariffs fueled ‘front-loaded’ orders to the US The nation’s machinery exports to the US amounted to US$7.19 billion last year, surpassing the US$6.86 billion to China to become the largest export destination for the local machinery industry, the Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry (TAMI, 台灣機械公會) said in a report on Jan. 10. It came as some manufacturers brought forward or “front-loaded” US-bound shipments as required by customers ahead of potential tariffs imposed by the new US administration, the association said. During his campaign, US president-elect Donald Trump threatened tariffs of as high as 60 percent on Chinese goods and 10 percent to 20 percent on imports from other countries.
Taiwanese manufacturers have a chance to play a key role in the humanoid robot supply chain, Tongtai Machine and Tool Co (東台精機) chairman Yen Jui-hsiung (嚴瑞雄) said yesterday. That is because Taiwanese companies are capable of making key parts needed for humanoid robots to move, such as harmonic drives and planetary gearboxes, Yen said. This ability to produce these key elements could help Taiwanese manufacturers “become part of the US supply chain,” he added. Yen made the remarks a day after Nvidia Corp cofounder and chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said his company and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) are jointly
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