Taiwanese shares yesterday posted a record daily gain of more than 1,700 points to close above 40,000 points for the first time, led by large-cap semiconductor stocks such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and MediaTek Inc (聯發科) amid optimism about the artificial intelligence (AI) boom.
The TAIEX ended up 1,778.51 points, or 4.57 percent, at 40,705.14 after moving between 39,228.39 and 40,755.52, while the New Taiwan dollar closed up NT$0.038 at NT$31.610 per US dollar, ending three consecutive sessions of declines.
Turnover on the main board totaled NT$1.007 trillion (US$31.9 billion), with foreign institutional investors buying a net NT$66.98 billion of shares, the sixth-largest on record, while domestic investment trust firms bought a net NT$2.12 billion and proprietary traders acquired a net NT$8.94 billion of local equities, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
Photo: CNA
“Buying in the semiconductor industry was sparked by massive spending proposed by major US cloud service providers (CSPs) to enhance their AI infrastructure,” Concord Securities Co (康和證券) analyst Kerry Huang (黃志祺) said.
The four major US CSPs — Alphabet Inc’s Google, Amazon.com Inc, Microsoft Corp and Meta Platforms Inc — last week announced aggregate capital expenditure of US$725 billion for this year, up 77 percent year-on-year.
Investors were cheered by solid earnings from mega-cap tech companies, which saw the S&P 500 Index extend a record-breaking streak on Friday to a fifth week of gains.
“TSMC is the largest beneficiary of the trend, so investors rushed to pick up shares, driving the TAIEX sharply higher,” Huang said.
TSMC, which accounts for more than 40 percent of total market value, rose 6.56 percent to close at a high of NT$2,275. The stock’s gains contributed about 1,110 points to the TAIEX’s rise.
Smartphone chip designer MediaTek, which is expected to benefit from its efforts in application-specific integrated circuit development to meet demand for AI devices, soared 10 percent, the maximum daily increase.
Memory supplier Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) surged 10 percent on a supply shortage, and chip packaging and testing service firm ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控) jumped 10 percent on robust AI applications.
Outside the semiconductor industry, iPhone assembler and AI server maker Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) gained 3.64 percent and Quanta Computer Inc (廣達電腦), another AI server supplier, added 1.76 percent.
Electric machinery stocks rose on the need for resilient electricity supply infrastructure to support AI, with Shihlin Electric & Engineering Corp (士林電機) up 6.3 percent and Allis Electric Co (亞力電機) up 10 percent.
As investors’ confidence recovers, the market’s focus should shift to firms’ revenue data for last month and their first-quarter financial results, equity analysts said.
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