The TAIEX yesterday rose 532.74 points — or 1.61 percent — to close at a record high 33,605.71 and cap the Year of the Snake with a 42.84 percent rally, as individual investors pocketed an average gain of NT$2.46 million (US$78,149) over the period.
Yesterday was the last trading session of the Year of the Snake. The market is to resume trading after the Lunar New Year holiday, which runs from Saturday to Feb. 22.
The local exchange navigated bouts of volatility over the past year — including disruptions from US tariffs — and again demonstrated the resilience of Taiwan’s industries and capital markets, Taiwan Stock Exchange Corp (TWSE) chairman Sherman Lin (林修銘) said.
Photo: Chen Yung-chi, Taipei Times
With total market capitalization reaching NT$103.62 trillion, Taiwan’s stock market has grown into the world’s seventh-largest, playing a pivotal role in supporting industrial development and helping Taiwanese companies expand globally, Lin told an event in Taipei.
The exchange plans to broaden its product lineup to cater to investors at different life stages and with different risk appetites, he said.
Advancing internationalization would also be a top priority, as the TWSE seeks to deepen engagement with global markets and strengthen cross-border connectivity, he said.
During the Year of the Snake, when trading started on Feb. 3 last year, the benchmark index surged 10,080.3 points, driven primarily by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and other high-tech heavyweights benefiting from robust demand for artificial intelligence (AI) hardware.
TSMC rose 1.86 percent to NT$1,915 yesterday, a new closing high.
During the Year of the Snake, TSMC soared 68.72 percent, with market capitalization expanding by NT$20.22 trillion to NT$49.66 trillion yesterday, TWSE data showed.
Last month, the Hsinchu City-based chipmaker forecast revenue growth of about 30 percent this year in US dollar terms, saying AI applications would continue to drive semiconductor industry growth and enable it to outperform the 14 percent growth expected for the global pure-play wafer foundry market.
TSMC, which accounts for more than 40 percent of the TAIEX’s total market value, on Tuesday said that consolidated revenue last month topped NT$400 billion for the first time, reaching a record NT$401.255 billion, defying a seasonal slowdown.
Price increases for TSMC’s advanced manufacturing processes are “all but certain,” independent equity analyst Chang Chen-hao (張陳浩) said, adding that advanced nodes could contribute more than 80 percent of revenue this quarter.
Institutional investors were active buyers yesterday, TWSE data showed.
Foreign institutional investors posted net purchases of NT$52.36 billion, while mutual funds and proprietary traders recorded net buying of NT$3.76 billion and NT$1.37 billion respectively.
“Investors should stay alert to how US markets perform during the holiday, as that could shape the TAIEX’s direction when trading resumes on Feb. 23,” Mega International Investment Services Corp (兆豐國際投顧) analyst Alex Huang (黃國偉) said.
Additional reporting by CNA
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