Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, became the world’s eighth biggest company in terms of market capitalization after a rally in its American depositary receipts (ADRs) on US markets on Monday.
TSMC’s ADRs rose 0.73 percent to close at NT$192.21, boosting the company’s market cap to US$996.8 billion, the eighth highest in the world, passing US-based investment firm Berkshire Hathaway Inc’s market value of US$992.4 billion. Berkshire Hathaway is owned by investment guru Warren Buffett.
TSMC’s ADRs hit an intraday high of US$194.25 on Monday in line with a robust showing by artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer Nvidia Corp, which rose 2.43 percent amid continued optimism toward AI development worldwide, dealers said.
Photo: An Rong Xu, Bloomberg
Yesterday, TSMC’s Taipei-lised shares rose 2.39 percent to close at NT$1,070, pushing up the benchmark TAIEX by 316.75 points, or 1.38 percent, to end at 23,292.04.
TSMC’s gains contributed about 200 points to the TAIEX’s rise and sent the electronics index and semiconductor sub-index higher by 1.89 percent and 2.09 percent, respectively.
“Many investors have embraced high hopes that TSMC will report good results for the third quarter and give impressive guidance for the fourth quarter and the whole of 2024 at an investor conference slated for Thursday, due to the AI boom,” Mega International Investment Services Corp (兆豐國際投顧) analyst Alex Huang (黃國偉) said. “It is possible TSMC will soon test NT$1,080, a closing high seen on July 11.”
“After the TAIEX passed 23,000 points, I expect the main board to soon challenge the historical intraday high of 23,650 points seen on July 17 as TSMC keeps moving ahead,” Huang said. “However, investors should remain alert over possible volatility on Wednesday, when October futures contracts will be settled, as foreign institutional investors still own a large amount of short position contracts.”
Turnover totaled NT$410.35 billion (US$12.75 billion) yesterday on the main board, with foreign institutional investors buying a net NT$33.43 billion of shares, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
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