Taiwan reported a net foreign fund inflow of US$21.05 billion last year, the highest annual figure after an inflow of US$26.6 billion in 2009, as foreign institutional investors last month recorded a large net fund inflow for the second consecutive month, the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) said on Thursday.
Data compiled by the commission showed that foreign institutional investors recorded a net fund inflow of US$6.09 billion in November last year and another net fund inflow of US$4.76 billion last month.
The November figure represented the highest monthly inflow in more than 10 years, reversing a net outflow of US$158 million in October, the commission said.
Photo: I-Hwa Cheng, Bloomberg
The large annual net fund inflow reflected foreign institutional investors’ faith in Taiwan’s economic fundamentals, even though they sold a net NT$449.01 billion (US$16.24 billion) in local shares on the main board and registered a net sale of NT$48.04 billion of shares on the over-the-counter market over the year, the commission said.
In 2020, Taiwan reported a net foreign fund outflow of US$4.91 billion, and foreign investors sold a net NT$606 billion in local shares, commission data showed.
“That foreign institutional investors posted net fund inflows, but sold off local shares last year, suggested that they might have made decent profits from investment in local stocks, and some are planning to buy more this year,” Securities and Futures Bureau Deputy Director-General Tsai Li-ling (蔡麗玲) said.
Last year’s inflow gave a boost to the New Taiwan dollar, which rose by NT$0.818, or 2.95 percent, against the US dollar to NT$27.690 on the last trading day of the year, and the TAIEX rose by 3,486.31 points, or 23.66 percent, to 18,218.84.
The FSC’s inflow figures came after the central bank on Wednesday reported a net foreign fund outflow of US$29.1 billion for the whole of last year.
The difference between the figures is due to the central bank including foreign investors’ outbound remittances of cash dividends of US$47.5 billion last year, which the FSC did not count as fund outflows.
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