Taiwan’s mutual funds last month shrank 3.04 percent to NT$2.47 trillion (US$80.63 billion), ending five consecutive months of gains, as portfolio managers and life insurers trimmed holdings and raised bets in overseas assets, First Securities Investment Trust Co (第一金投信) said on Tuesday.
The retreat was most evident in currency funds, including onshore and offshore funds, which fell 9.95 percent from May to NT$737.35 billion, the state-run fund house said, citing Securities Investment Trust and Consulting Association (證券投信投顧公會) data.
Portfolio adjustments had more to do with changes in fund levels, as currency funds are less risky than other types, the fund house said.
Portfolio managers and domestic insurance companies last month increased their stakes in overseas assets to pursue better yields after the US Federal Reserve raised policy rates by 25 basis points and suggested more hikes this year, it said.
Global investors have pulled out of emerging and advanced markets this year for similar reasons, the fund house said, adding that the adjustments are not a vote of no confidence in fund investment.
US President Donald Trump in March announced plans to hike tariffs, but funds in Taiwan kept rising over the following three months thanks to a stable economy, it said.
While ongoing tariff rows between the US and its major trading partners have dampened confidence, trade disputes tend to have limited effects on financial markets, as seen in the past, it added.
Rather, market pullbacks have proved opportunities for bargain hunting, especially in Chinese shares whose price-to-earnings ratios have dropped to less than their 10-year averages, the fund house said.
Companies involved in the development of artificial intelligence, financial technology and biotechnology might emerge unharmed from the tariff disputes because of their robust earnings potential, it said.
NO BREAKTHROUGH? More substantial ‘deliverables,’ such as tariff reductions, would likely be saved for a meeting between Trump and Xi later this year, a trade expert said China launched two probes targeting the US semiconductor sector on Saturday ahead of talks between the two nations in Spain this week on trade, national security and the ownership of social media platform TikTok. China’s Ministry of Commerce announced an anti-dumping investigation into certain analog integrated circuits (ICs) imported from the US. The investigation is to target some commodity interface ICs and gate driver ICs, which are commonly made by US companies such as Texas Instruments Inc and ON Semiconductor Corp. The ministry also announced an anti-discrimination probe into US measures against China’s chip sector. US measures such as export curbs and tariffs
The US on Friday penalized two Chinese firms that acquired US chipmaking equipment for China’s top chipmaker, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯國際), including them among 32 entities that were added to the US Department of Commerce’s restricted trade list, a US government posting showed. Twenty-three of the 32 are in China. GMC Semiconductor Technology (Wuxi) Co (吉姆西半導體科技) and Jicun Semiconductor Technology (Shanghai) Co (吉存半導體科技) were placed on the list, formally known as the Entity List, for acquiring equipment for SMIC Northern Integrated Circuit Manufacturing (Beijing) Corp (中芯北方積體電路) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International (Beijing) Corp (中芯北京), the US Federal Register posting said. The
India’s ban of online money-based games could drive addicts to unregulated apps and offshore platforms that pose new financial and social risks, fantasy-sports gaming experts say. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government banned real-money online games late last month, citing financial losses and addiction, leading to a shutdown of many apps offering paid fantasy cricket, rummy and poker games. “Many will move to offshore platforms, because of the addictive nature — they will find alternate means to get that dopamine hit,” said Viren Hemrajani, a Mumbai-based fantasy cricket analyst. “It [also] leads to fraud and scams, because everything is now
MORTGAGE WORRIES: About 34% of respondents to a survey said they would approach multiple lenders to pay for a home, while 29.2% said they would ask family for help New housing projects in Taiwan’s six special municipalities, as well as Hsinchu city and county, are projected to total NT$710.65 billion (US$23.61 billion) in the upcoming fall sales season, a record 30 percent decrease from a year earlier, as tighter mortgage rules prompt developers to pull back, property listing platform 591.com (591新建案) said yesterday. The number of projects has also fallen to 312, a more than 20 percent decrease year-on-year, underscoring weakening sentiment and momentum amid lingering policy and financing headwinds. New Taipei City and Taoyuan bucked the downturn in project value, while Taipei, Hsinchu city and county, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung
RSS