The number of so-called “big investors” — those who trade more than NT$500 million (US$17.86 million) in local stocks in a single quarter — rose 88 percent in the second quarter to 5,990 investors, a record amount for a fifth consecutive quarter, data released by the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) showed.
The number of big investors, viewed as a gauge of investors’ confidence in the local stock market, has been hitting fresh highs since the 1,674 registered in the second quarter of last year. The number increased to 2,369 in the third quarter and 2,401 in the fourth quarter of last year, before climbing to 3,178 in the first quarter of this year.
The rise in the number of big investors last quarter came as the local stock market’s turnover advanced 58 percent from NT$18.11 trillion in the first quarter to NT$28.77 trillion in the second quarter, indicating that more institutional investors and big investors had entered the market, a TWSE official told the Taipei Times by telephone.
Photo courtesy of Yahoo-Kimo Inc via CNA
Although big investors made up less than 1 percent of the 4.44 million individual investors, their trading activity contributed to the growing turnover more significantly than other types of investor, the official said.
Also hitting records, the number of “mid-sized investors” — those who trade NT$100 million to NT$500 million in a single quarter — reached 48,826, up 82 percent from the previous quarter, and the number of retail investors — those who trade less than NT$100 million — reached 4.39 million, up 13 percent, TWSE data showed.
The total number of investors rose 13 percent quarterly to 4.44 million in the second quarter, the data showed.
Despite market volatility in the middle of May due to a rise in the number of domestic COVID-19 cases, local stocks have overall “kept booming” over the past three months, with the TAIEX gaining 8 percent to 17,775 points, which has attracted new investors, the official said.
The combined transactions of retail investors accounted for 70.25 percent of all transactions in the second quarter, compared with 63 percent a quarter earlier, while foreign institutional investors made up 21 percent, followed by the 7.9 percent accounted for by domestic institutional investors, TWSE data showed.
The market capitalization of stocks listed on the TWSE reached NT$54.31 trillion at the end of last month, up 8 percent from NT$50.16 trillion at the end of March, whereas the average price-earnings ratio slid from 21.66 to 18.58 over the period, the data showed.
Yesterday, the TAIEX rose 33.19 points, or 0.19 percent, to close at 17,847.52.
Turnover totaled NT$656.38 billion, with foreign institutional investors buying a net NT$22.95 billion of shares on the main board, TWSE data showed.
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