Despite the National Development Council’s (NDC) business climate monitor flashing “yellow-blue” for the first time in 26 months, indicating sluggish business, local publicly traded companies still reported revenue growth and showed solid fundamentals, Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) Chairman Thomas Huang (黃天牧) said yesterday.
Huang’s comment came as investors mulled over whether the FSC would implement the short-selling ban on all local stocks after the TAIEX benchmark index continued its downtrend, falling 1.07 percent to 12,788.42 points.
The commission accounts for the business climate monitor when adjusting its policy, but local companies have operated securely, with combined revenues growing about 10 percent year-on-year for the first three quarters, Huang said.
Photo: CNA
The average yield of local stocks stands at 5.34 percent and the price-earnings ratio tallied 9.4, suggesting that the fundamentals of local stocks are strong, he added.
FSC data show that the monetary valuation of all local and foreign shares held by local financial sectors plunged to NT$2.6 trillion (US$80.88 billion) at the end of last month, down 16 percent from NT$3.1 trillion a month earlier,.
Local banks were the biggest share sellers, off-loading NT$136.5 billion of local shares last month, while local brokerages sold about NT$3.7 billion of local shares, the commission’s data showed.
Only local life insurance companies bought more local shares last month. The combined valuation of local shares held by local life insurers dropped to NT$1.59 trillion at the end of last month, the lowest in 30 months, the commission’s data showed.
Turnover in local stocks totaled NT$172.7 billion yesterday, while foreign institutional investors sold a net NT$11.85 billion of local shares, with weighted stocks such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), MediaTek Inc (聯發科) and Evergreen Marine Corp (長榮海運) suffering the brunt, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
Foreign institutional investors sold a net NT$10.4 billion of local shares this week, much less than NT$50.24 billion a week earlier, the data showed.
Shares in Taiwan closed at a new high yesterday, the first trading day of the new year, as contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) continued to break records amid an artificial intelligence (AI) boom, dealers said. The TAIEX closed up 386.21 points, or 1.33 percent, at 29,349.81, with turnover totaling NT$648.844 billion (US$20.65 billion). “Judging from a stronger Taiwan dollar against the US dollar, I think foreign institutional investors returned from the holidays and brought funds into the local market,” Concord Securities Co (康和證券) analyst Kerry Huang (黃志祺) said. “Foreign investors just rebuilt their positions with TSMC as their top target,
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