The TAIEX yesterday finished the year with a 28.47 percent gain, the highest annual gain since 2009, thanks to the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
The local bourse yesterday shed 0.67 percent to 23,035.1 amid profit-taking, but still ranked the second-best market globally next only to the technology-heavy NASDAQ index’s 31.97 percent gain.
As of the end of the year, the Taiwan Stock Exchange’s market turnover hit a new high of NT$99.81 trillion (US$3.04 trillion), smashing the previous high of NT$95.52 trillion at the end of 2021.
Photo: CNA
Based on the increase of NT$17.1 trillion in market capitalization to NT$73.9 trillion, investors on the main board each earned almost NT$1.3 million in the year. About 13.18 million investors were registered on the local stock market at the end of November.
The record came even though foreign portfolio managers sold local shares by a net NT$695.14 billion and proprietary dealers cut their stakes by NT$823.8 billion in the year, Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) data showed.
However, investment trust funds lent support by investing NT$832.2 billion, in line with the growing popularity of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) among local retail investors, according to TWSE data.
ETFs gathered another NT$200 billion to NT$2.9 trillion despite a choppy market in the second half of the year.
Shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) spiked 81.28 percent in the year to close at NT$1,075 yesterday amid growing optimism over AI applications and the company’s strong bottom line.
Due to its significant share price gains, TSMC’s market capitalization rose by NT$12.5 trillion from a year earlier, and it contributed more than 3,800 points to the TAIEX’s gains in the year.
Average capital gains would moderate to NT$434,700 per investor if TSMC’s contribution was stripped out.
The chipmaker is to benefit further from aggressive spending by US technology giants on cloud computing and AI applications, First Securities Inc (第一金證券) said yesterday.
“TSMC has proved a reliable and favored partner because of its leadership in chipmaking processes,” First Securities said.
TSMC is to host an investors’ conference on Jan. 16 to outline its business outlook for the new year, after delivering better-than-expected results three months earlier.
Securities houses largely share the view that the TAIEX would rally above 24,000 points this year, as TSMC is forecast to improve its sales by double-digit percentage points in the next five years.
Overall corporate profits this year would expand 15.2 percent, but electronics firms would achieve 30 percent growth because they have demonstrated better pricing ability and management efficiency, PGIM Securities Investment Trust Enterprise Co (保德信投信) said.
By contrast, the New Taiwan dollar fared less well last year, weakening 6.24 percent to NT$32.781 yesterday versus the US dollar, central bank data showed.
That was the poorest end-of-year rate in the past nine years, but that retreat paled in comparision with the won’s 12.58 percent decline and yen's 9.48 percent fall, the central bank said.
Elsewhere in Asia last year, the Vietnamese dong fell 4.88 percent against the US dollar, the Singapore dollar declined 2.97 percent and China's yuan dropped 2.84 percent, the central bank added.
Global funds have flowed to the US dollar in light of relatively high interest rates in the US and ahead of potential tariff hikes by the White House when US president-elect Donald Trump assumes office on Jan. 20.
EXPRESSING GRATITUDE: Without its Taiwanese partners which are ‘working around the clock,’ Nvidia could not meet AI demand, CEO Jensen Huang said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and US-based artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer Nvidia Corp have partnered with each other on silicon photonics development, Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said. Speaking with reporters after he met with TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) in Taipei on Friday, Huang said his company was working with the world’s largest contract chipmaker on silicon photonics, but admitted it was unlikely for the cooperation to yield results any time soon, and both sides would need several years to achieve concrete outcomes. To have a stake in the silicon photonics supply chain, TSMC and
‘DETERRENT’: US national security adviser-designate Mike Waltz said that he wants to speed up deliveries of weapons purchased by Taiwan to deter threats from China US president-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for US secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, affirmed his commitment to peace in the Taiwan Strait during his confirmation hearing in Washington on Tuesday. Hegseth called China “the most comprehensive and serious challenge to US national security” and said that he would aim to limit Beijing’s expansion in the Indo-Pacific region, Voice of America reported. He would also adhere to long-standing policies to prevent miscalculations, Hegseth added. The US Senate Armed Services Committee hearing was the first for a nominee of Trump’s incoming Cabinet, and questions mostly focused on whether he was fit for the
IDENTITY: Compared with other platforms, TikTok’s algorithm pushes a ‘disproportionately high ratio’ of pro-China content, a study has found Young Taiwanese are increasingly consuming Chinese content on TikTok, which is changing their views on identity and making them less resistant toward China, researchers and politicians were cited as saying by foreign media. Asked to suggest the best survival strategy for a small country facing a powerful neighbor, students at National Chia-Yi Girls’ Senior High School said “Taiwan must do everything to avoid provoking China into attacking it,” the Financial Times wrote on Friday. Young Taiwanese between the ages of 20 and 24 in the past were the group who most strongly espoused a Taiwanese identity, but that is no longer
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake and several aftershocks battered southern Taiwan early this morning, causing houses and roads to collapse and leaving dozens injured and 50 people isolated in their village. A total of 26 people were reported injured and sent to hospitals due to the earthquake as of late this morning, according to the latest Ministry of Health and Welfare figures. In Sising Village (西興) of Chiayi County's Dapu Township (大埔), the location of the quake's epicenter, severe damage was seen and roads entering the village were blocked, isolating about 50 villagers. Another eight people who were originally trapped inside buildings in Tainan
RSS