Traders will from today be barred from short-selling 152 stocks after the Financial Supervisory Commission on Friday said it would tighten a short-selling ban.
The commission said it would keep a close eye on the local stock markets today and see whether investors’ confidence has been restored, the Central News Agency reported yesterday, citing an unnamed commission official.
Taiwanese shares are expected to find some respite this week after US stocks moved higher on Friday as investors priced in comments by US Federal Reserve officials that the central bank might slow the pace of rate hikes in December, equity strategists said.
Photo: CNA
The TAIEX dropped 126.9 points, or 0.98 percent, to close at 12,819.2 on Friday, posting a weekly decline of 2.35 percent, from 13,128.12 on Oct. 14, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
Data compiled by the Securities and Futures Bureau showed that 105 stocks on the Taiwan Stock Exchange and 47 stocks on the Taipei Exchange dropped 3.5 percent or more on Friday, which makes them subject to the regulator’s expanded short-selling ban when the local markets open today.
The commission said in a statement on Friday that investors would not be able to short-sell stocks at a price lower than the previous close if shares drop more than 3.5 percent the previous session, effective immediately.
Securities houses and futures traders that conduct short sales for hedging purposes would not be covered by the latest ban, the commission said.
The local equities have fluctuated significantly in the past few weeks, affected by the volatility of US bond yields and US stocks, Allianz Global Investors Taiwan Ltd (安聯投信) said in a note.
As the outlook for corporate earnings remains mixed and mainstream stocks on the local markets apparently lost momentum, investors are advised to be cautious about Taiwanese equities in the near term, Allianz Taiwan’s equity research team said.
At present, investors might favor stocks that have stable cash flows and strong business fundamentals, or switch to stocks that have relatively lower valuation and growth potential, Allianz said.
In addition, counter-cyclical stocks and those that might benefit from post-COVID-19 pandemic pent-up demand might also gain momentum, it added.
Shares of contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) came under pressure yesterday after a report that Apple Inc is looking to shift some orders from the Taiwanese company to Intel Corp. TSMC shares fell NT$55, or 2.4 percent, to close at NT$2,235 on the local main board, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. Despite the losses, TSMC is expected to continue to benefit from sound fundamentals, as it maintains a lead over its peers in high-end process development, analysts said. “The selling was a knee-jerk reaction to an Intel-Apple report over the weekend,” Mega International Investment Services Corp (兆豐國際投顧) analyst Alex Huang
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to remain Apple Inc’s primary chip manufacturing partner despite reports that Apple could shift some orders to Intel Corp, industry experts said yesterday. The comments came after The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Apple and Intel had reached a preliminary agreement following more than a year of negotiations for Intel to manufacture some chips for Apple devices. Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (台灣經濟研究院) economist Arisa Liu (劉佩真) said TSMC’s advanced packaging technologies, including integrated fan-out and chip-on-wafer-on-substrate, remain critical to the performance of Apple’s A-series and M-series chips. She said Intel and Samsung
TRANSITION: With the closure, the company would reorganize its Taiwanese unit to a sales and service-focused model, Bridgestone said Bridgestone Corp yesterday announced it would cease manufacturing operations at its tire plant in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), affecting more than 500 workers. Bridgestone Taiwan Co (台灣普利司通) said in a statement that the decision was based on the Tokyo-based tire maker’s adjustments to its global operational strategy and long-term market development considerations. The Taiwanese unit would be reorganized as part of the closure, effective yesterday, and all related production activities would be concluded, the statement said. Under the plan, Bridgestone would continue to deepen its presence in the Taiwanese market, while transitioning to a sales and service-focused business model, it added. The Hsinchu
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has approved a capital budget of US$31.28 billion for production expansion to meet long-term development needs during the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. The company’s board meeting yesterday approved the capital appropriation plan for purposes such as the installation of advanced technology capacity and fab construction, the world’s largest contract chipmaker said in a statement. At an earnings conference last month, TSMC forecast that its capital expenditure for this year would be at the higher end of the US$52 billion to US$56 billion range it forecast in January in response to robust demand for 5G, AI and
RSS