The TAIEX yesterday climbed out of a slump to close higher, led by shares of contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which recovered from a tumble in the previous session, dealers said.
TSMC helped boost the bellwether electronics sector, and the gains also spread to the old economy and financial sectors, lending additional support to the main board, but turnover remained low amid fears of further volatility on US markets, dealers said.
The TAIEX closed up 0.78 percent at 16,144.85 on turnover of NT$197.899 billion (US$6.67 billion).
The TAIEX opened up 0.26 percent, ignoring the losses on US markets overnight, and it gained momentum as TSMC shares attracted bargain hunters after plunging 2.97 percent on Thursday, dealers said.
BARGAIN HUNTING
The bargain hunting also spread to non-technology stocks, including the steel and financial sectors, helping the TAIEX close above 16,100 points after its 1.70 percent tumble the previous day, they said.
“While US markets continued to trend lower, the selling was more on the Dow than the tech-heavy NASDAQ index,” Mega International Investment Services Corp (兆豐國際投顧) analyst Alex Huang (黃國偉) said. “Investors here simply took advantage of the heavy losses suffered by electronics stocks yesterday to pick up bargains today.”
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.75 percent on Thursday, while the NASDAQ finished 0.26 percent lower.
“In Taiwan, TSMC became the major target among bargain hunters, as its share price was relatively low, while its fundamentals remained sound,” Huang said.
TSMC shares rose 1.53 percent yesterday to close at NT$530, contributing almost 70 points to the TAIEX’s gain, and leading the electronics and semiconductor subindices to rise 0.72 percent and 1.09 percent respectively.
Other semiconductor heavyweights finished mixed, with chipmaker United Microelectronics Corp (聯電) shares losing 0.20 percent to close at NT$50.70, while shares of application-specific IC designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原科技) dropped 1.25 percent to close at NT$950.
In the wider electronics sector, shares of iPhone assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) fell 0.47 percent to close at NT$107, while those of PC brand Acer Inc (宏碁) shed 1.42 percent to close at NT$27.75 after Acer chairman Jason Chen (陳俊聖) said that he was afraid PC demand would be affected by COVID-19 lockdowns in China and inflation worldwide.
Formosa Plastics Corp (台灣塑膠) shares gained 1.46 percent to close at NT$104.50.
Shares of Evergreen Marine Corp (長榮海運), the nation’s largest container cargo shipper, lost 0.74 percent to close at NT$135, while those of its rival Yang Ming Marine Transport Corp (陽明海運) finished 2.17 percent higher at NT$117.50.
In the financial sector, which rose 0.86 percent, Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控) shares closed up 0.32 percent at NT$61.80, while Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控) shares closed 0.38 percent higher at NT$52.90.
Taiwan’s technology protection rules prohibits Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) from producing 2-nanometer chips abroad, so the company must keep its most cutting-edge technology at home, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. Kuo made the remarks in response to concerns that TSMC might be forced to produce advanced 2-nanometer chips at its fabs in Arizona ahead of schedule after former US president Donald Trump was re-elected as the next US president on Tuesday. “Since Taiwan has related regulations to protect its own technologies, TSMC cannot produce 2-nanometer chips overseas currently,” Kuo said at a meeting of the legislature’s
GEOPOLITICAL ISSUES? The economics ministry said that political factors should not affect supply chains linking global satellite firms and Taiwanese manufacturers Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) asked Taiwanese suppliers to transfer manufacturing out of Taiwan, leading to some relocating portions of their supply chain, according to sources employed by and close to the equipment makers and corporate documents. A source at a company that is one of the numerous subcontractors that provide components for SpaceX’s Starlink satellite Internet products said that SpaceX asked their manufacturers to produce outside of Taiwan because of geopolitical risks, pushing at least one to move production to Vietnam. A second source who collaborates with Taiwanese satellite component makers in the nation said that suppliers were directly
Top Taiwanese officials yesterday moved to ease concern about the potential fallout of Donald Trump’s return to the White House, making a case that the technology restrictions promised by the former US president against China would outweigh the risks to the island. The prospect of Trump’s victory in this week’s election is a worry for Taipei given the Republican nominee in the past cast doubt over the US commitment to defend it from Beijing. But other policies championed by Trump toward China hold some appeal for Taiwan. National Development Council Minister Paul Liu (劉鏡清) described the proposed technology curbs as potentially having
EXPORT CONTROLS: US lawmakers have grown more concerned that the US Department of Commerce might not be aggressively enforcing its chip restrictions The US on Friday said it imposed a US$500,000 penalty on New York-based GlobalFoundries Inc, the world’s third-largest contract chipmaker, for shipping chips without authorization to an affiliate of blacklisted Chinese chipmaker Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯). The US Department of Commerce in a statement said GlobalFoundries sent 74 shipments worth US$17.1 million to SJ Semiconductor Corp (盛合晶微半導體), an affiliate of SMIC, without seeking a license. Both SMIC and SJ Semiconductor were added to the department’s trade restriction Entity List in 2020 over SMIC’s alleged ties to the Chinese military-industrial complex. SMIC has denied wrongdoing. Exports to firms on the list