Strong net buying of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) shares on Friday pushed the stock to the highest among the nation’s listed companies on the main board after its investor conference sparked optimism about the chipmaker’s developments in advanced technology, according to the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE).
TSMC, the most heavily weighted stock on the local bourse, rose 2.56 percent to close at the day’s high of NT$140, with 55.83 million shares changing hands, outperforming the broader market, after foreign institutional investors bought a net 22.87 million shares.
The TAIEX ended up only 0.04 percent at 9,045.98 points. Market analysts said that TSMC’s strong showing helped the main board fend off technical resistance ahead of 9,100 points.
Other listed companies lagged far behind TSMC in foreign institutional net buying on Friday, TWSE data showed.
First Financial Holding Co (第一金控) came in second with a net buy of 5.54 million ahead of BES Engineering Co (中華工程) with 5.19 million shares, Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控) with 5.07 million shares and Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶) with 4.83 million shares.
TSMC received a boost from hopes that the chip maker would maintain its technological lead over its peers by launching 10 nanometer (nm) production after the company said in an investor conference held on Thursday that development of the process has advanced smoothly.
TSMC said that it is scheduled to launch commercial production of the 10nm process in the fourth quarter of next year and start to ship chips made with the process from the first quarter of 2017.
Such an upbeat mood prompted investors to ignore TSMC’s slower-than-expected sales guidance for the third quarter of this year. TSMC said at an investor conference that its consolidated sales for the July-to-September period could rise between 0.7 percent and 2.2 percent from the second quarter, with the forecast missing an earlier market estimate of a 5 percent increase.
The stock attracted strong buying soon after the local bourse opened on Friday and the momentum continued to the end of the session.
Friday’s net buy in TSMC shares stopped a nine-session foreign institutional net selling streak in the stock caused by worries over its performance in the third quarter due to extended inventory adjustments in the global semiconductor industry.
This week, market capitalization of the main board rose 1.57 percent from a week earlier to NT$26.36 trillion (US$841.85 billion) after the weighted index rose 131.85 points or 1.48 percent, TWSE data showed.
Last week, the biotech sector rose 7.63 percent, the highest gain by sector on the local bourse, while the communications/Internet sector suffered the steepest loss of 1.83 percent, statistics indicated.
VALUABLE STOCK: The company closed at NT$1,005 a share, on demand for AI and HPC chips, and is expected to issue a positive report during its earnings conference Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) shares rose 2.66 percent to close at a record high of NT$1,005 yesterday. as investors expect the company to continue benefiting from strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC) chips. TSMC is the 19th member of the local bourse’s NT$1,000 stock club, which includes smartphone chip designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) and electric transformer manufacturer Fortune Electric Co (華城電機). Yesterday’s rally swelled TSMC’s market capitalization to NT$26.06 trillion (US$802.3 billion) and contributed about 211 points to the TAIEX, which closed up 350.1 points, or 1.51 percent, to 23,522.53, another record high, Taiwan Stock
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