To gain from robust growth momentum in Taiwan, fund investments tracking the TAIEX benchmark or its shares will soon be available to overseas investors including those in South Korea and Singapore, two asset management companies said yesterday.
“Such [fund] investments are the right products at the right time because local growth momentum appears to be strong,” Alex Huang (黃昭棠), head of the index investment department at Polaris International Securities Investment Trust Co (寶來投信) in Taipei, said in a telephone interview yesterday.
Polaris plans to team up with the securities arm of the Development Bank of Singapore (DBS, 星展銀行) to list exchange traded funds (ETF) tracking the TAIEX on the Singapore Exchange (SGX) in the third quarter of this year, Huang said.
Meanwhile, Yunsik Chung, chief investment officer of ING Securities Investment Trust (Korea) Ltd, told Reuters in Taipei that his company was scheduled to kick-start sales in the South Korea market of mutual funds that only invest in TAIEX shares on Monday the Chinese-language Economic Daily News reported yesterday.
Chung left Taipei yesterday and wasn’t available for comment.
However, his company’s Taipei branch confirmed that Chung had expressed optimism about the local market.
Chung was looking forward to the policies of president-elect Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) incoming government’s to boost Taiwan’s economy by improving ties with China, ING Taipei said.
He also believes that Taiwan’s information technology sector will soon hit bottom and, therefore, “now is a good time to enter the TAIEX,” Chung was quoted as saying.
Huang was also upbeat about sales of ETFs in Singapore.
He said that DBS’ securities outlets, which will work as the fund’s participant dealers, have more than 200,000 clients, which will provide a base for the new fund.
Polaris plans to raise at least US$20 million in the funds by year’s end, Huang said.
It hopes to attract oil dollars from Islamic investors in the city-state by providing a vehicle for them to expand their exposure in TAIEX shares, he said.
Huang said that he believes the company’s new fund will outperform another ETF —which tracks the MSCI Taiwan index and is traded by Societe Generale on the SGX — since its products will provide a management mechanism that will allow investors to gain from the fund’s up-charges.
The SGX has agreed to offer preferable regulatory terms to facilitate sales of such a cross-border fund, to be traded by companies in both countries.
Huang said that Taiwanese ETFs have a rosy trade record and have an average daily turnover of around NT$1 billion (US$32.4 million).
Taiwan’s technology protection rules prohibits Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) from producing 2-nanometer chips abroad, so the company must keep its most cutting-edge technology at home, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. Kuo made the remarks in response to concerns that TSMC might be forced to produce advanced 2-nanometer chips at its fabs in Arizona ahead of schedule after former US president Donald Trump was re-elected as the next US president on Tuesday. “Since Taiwan has related regulations to protect its own technologies, TSMC cannot produce 2-nanometer chips overseas currently,” Kuo said at a meeting of the legislature’s
TECH WAR CONTINUES: The suspension of TSMC AI chips and GPUs would be a heavy blow to China’s chip designers and would affect its competitive edge Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, is reportedly to halt supply of artificial intelligence (AI) chips and graphics processing units (GPUs) made on 7-nanometer or more advanced process technologies from next week in order to comply with US Department of Commerce rules. TSMC has sent e-mails to its Chinese AI customers, informing them about the suspension starting on Monday, Chinese online news outlet Ijiwei.com (愛集微) reported yesterday. The US Department of Commerce has not formally unveiled further semiconductor measures against China yet. “TSMC does not comment on market rumors. TSMC is a law-abiding company and we are
FLEXIBLE: Taiwan can develop its own ground station equipment, and has highly competitive manufacturers and suppliers with diversified production, the MOEA said The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) yesterday disputed reports that suppliers to US-based Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) had been asked to move production out of Taiwan. Reuters had reported on Tuesday last week that Elon Musk-owned SpaceX had asked their manufacturers to produce outside of Taiwan given geopolitical risks and that at least one Taiwanese supplier had been pushed to relocate production to Vietnam. SpaceX’s requests place a renewed focus on the contentious relationship Musk has had with Taiwan, especially after he said last year that Taiwan is an “integral part” of China, sparking sharp criticism from Taiwanese authorities. The ministry said
US President Joe Biden’s administration is racing to complete CHIPS and Science Act agreements with companies such as Intel Corp and Samsung Electronics Co, aiming to shore up one of its signature initiatives before US president-elect Donald Trump enters the White House. The US Department of Commerce has allocated more than 90 percent of the US$39 billion in grants under the act, a landmark law enacted in 2022 designed to rebuild the domestic chip industry. However, the agency has only announced one binding agreement so far. The next two months would prove critical for more than 20 companies still in the process
RSS