Foreign investors have made an about-face in their Taiwan stock investments this week, thanks to a blowout earnings result from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電).
After withdrawing US$4.5 billion from local shares through Thursday on post-election concerns and a pullback in US policy easing bets, global funds rushed back the next day following a solid growth outlook from the chip giant, data compiled by Bloomberg showed. They scooped up US$2.6 billion in equities on Friday.
That boosted foreign investors’ net buying of Taiwanese equities worth NT$80.17 billion (US$2.55 billion) on Friday, marking the second-biggest number on record. The TAIEX ended surging 2.63 percent to 17,681.62.
Photo: REUTERS
While cross-strait relations remain an overhang, particularly after Chinese officials said it might cancel tariff concessions for some Taiwan imports, TSMC’s projections for capital spending and revenue have raised hopes of a broad recovery in the tech sector this year.
“The political risk premia for Taiwan assets is likely to fade as investor interest shifts back to fundamentals,” Invesco Asset Management (景順投信) strategist David Chao said.
The nation’s tech sector “could benefit from a continuation of the increased tech exports we have seen in recent months, which were boosted by artificial intelligence-related products,” he said.
TSMC jumped more than 6 percent in Taiwan to NT$626 after its US depository receipts surged almost 10 percent to close at the highest level since February 2022.
TSMC, the main supplier of chips to Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp, sees a return to solid growth this quarter as it moves ahead with plans for plants in Japan, Arizona and Germany amid growth fueled by the boom in artificial intelligence development. Its earnings spurred the biggest rally for chipmakers in more than a month on Thursday and pushed the Nasdaq 100 index to close at an all-time high.
“The better-than-expected results from TSMC could be positive signals on demand recovery,” Billionfold Asset Management Inc chief executive officer and fund manager An Hyungjin said. “With strong AI demand, not only the US big tech firms but also most tech firms around the world have to invest in AI, and that could be good news to stock markets.”
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