The TAIEX rose for the third straight day yesterday to break the 5,000-point mark, while the New Taiwan dollar climbed for the fifth day to a one-month high on hopes that Chinese tourists would boost consumption and that the worst of the global financial storm was over.
The benchmark index rose 70.07 points, or 1.41 percent, to 5,041.39 — its strongest showing since Oct. 16, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
Turnover was NT$107.39 billion (US$3.13 billion), with foreign funds buying a net NT$3.568 billion in local shares.
Alan Tseng (曾炎裕), an analyst at Capital Securities Corp (群益證券), said institutional investors at home and abroad had increased their holdings of local equities in recent days because Wall Street seemed to have stabilized.
“The worst of the global financial crisis is over,” Tseng said by telephone.
“Investors regained [their] risk appetite as the plunge in US financial stocks eased off — a sentiment that also buoyed the local bourse,” he said.
The financial subindex closed up 2.72 percent on the back of a 7.29 percent gain in its US counterpart, even though the Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 7.01 points.
Tseng said the arrival of a large group of Chinese tourists on Monday had also contributed to the rally, with shares of many tourism companies performing well yesterday.
But profit-taking pulled the subindex down 0.69 percent, Tseng said.
The optimism spread to the foreign exchange market, where the NT dollar rose NT$0.138, or 0.37 percent, to NT$34.278 against the greenback.
Turnover was US$1.244 billion on the Taipei Forex and US$412 million on the smaller Cosmos Foreign Exchange, bringing total transactions to US$1.656 billion, statistics from the two companies showed.
A dealer at a domestic bank said he was concerned about the rising value of the NT dollar because the economic outlook remained gloomy.
“The NT dollar’s appreciation had more to do with speculation than investors regaining their confidence,” the dealer said on condition of anonymity. “They will pull out of the market once they meet their profit goal.”
But the dealer said it was likely that the central bank would intervene and spoil speculators’ plans.
DEFENSE: The first set of three NASAMS that were previously purchased is expected to be delivered by the end of this year and deployed near the capital, sources said Taiwan plans to procure 28 more sets of M-142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), as well as nine additional sets of National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS), military sources said yesterday. Taiwan had previously purchased 29 HIMARS launchers from the US and received the first 11 last year. Once the planned purchases are completed and delivered, Taiwan would have 57 sets of HIMARS. The army has also increased the number of MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) purchased from 64 to 84, the sources added. Each HIMARS launch pod can carry six Guided Multiple Launch Rocket Systems, capable of
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CRITICISM: It is deeply regrettable that China, which is pursuing nuclear weapons, has suppressed Taiwan, which is pursuing peace, a government official said Representative to Japan Lee Yi-yang (李逸洋) yesterday accused Beijing of interference after Taiwan’s official delegation to the Nagasaki Peace Memorial Ceremony in Japan was assigned seating in the “international non-governmental organizations [NGO]” area. “Taiwan is by no means an international NGO, but a sovereign nation that is active on the international stage,” Lee said. Lee and Chen Ming-chun (陳銘俊), head of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) in Fukuoka, attended the ceremony in Nagasaki yesterday, which marked the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombing of the city. That followed Lee’s attendance at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Ceremony on Wednesday
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