The TAIEX yesterday rallied 6.37 percent to 9,234.09 points after the government on Thursday pledged to activate the National Stabilization Fund.
The benchmark index opened up 135.52 points and surpassed its 10-year moving average of 9,110 points after an hour of trading, Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) data showed.
Turnover totaled NT$234.027 billion (US$7.72 billion), slightly down from NT$271.17 billion a day earlier, but higher than last month’s average of NT$146 billion, the data showed.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
Foreign institutional investors, who have been selling stocks in the local equity market since March 6, yesterday showed a net sale for the consecutive 11th day after offloading NT$21.9 billion, the data showed.
It seems that domestic investors were more encouraged by the government’s measures than foreign peers, Hua Nan Securities Investment Management Co (華南投顧) chairman David Chu (儲祥生) told the Taipei Times by telephone.
The measures included the central bank cutting rates by 25 basis points, the Financial Supervisory Commission’s ban on short-selling and the Ministry of Finance’s activation of the National Stabilization Fund, Chu said.
“All of them are expected to be helpful, as they send a message to investors that the government would do something to curb the decline of the TAIEX,” Chu said.
However, it remains unknown how long the market would keep improving due to the stimulus policies, as the global economic outlook is not rosy with the COVID-19 pandemic weighing on private consumption worldwide, Chu said.
Selling among foreign institutional investors is not likely to end soon, as they, being fund management companies, need to sell stocks to pay investors who want cash amid the uncertainty, Chu said.
In related news, the commission on Thursday said that it would encourage the nation’s life insurance companies to increase their investment in local shares.
The commission, which last year added an asymmetric adjustment mechanism into its risk-based capital calculation for life insurers, cut the risk weighting of local shares from 27.3 percent at the end of last year to 14.62 percent on Thursday, it said.
The move would allow insurers to hold less capital when they increase investment in local stocks and thus ease the pressure of maintaining good capital adequacy, it said.
Cathay Life Insurance Co (國泰人壽) said that it would not add investment in local stocks solely because of the reduction of risk weighting, as its ratio — 346 percent as of the end of last year — was much higher than the minimum of 250 percent.
However, it would continue selecting good targets and looking for good times to increase investment, Cathay said.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last