The nation’s net foreign fund outflow totaled US$3.89 billion last month, the first outflow over the past six months, as foreign institutional investors continued to sell local shares amid the COVID-19 outbreak, Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) data showed.
Foreign institutional investors sold a net NT$129.24 billion (US$4.3 billion) of shares in the local equity market last month, higher than the NT$36.46 billion sold in January, the data showed.
Foreign investors dumped a net NT$129.8 billion of local shares of companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange, while they purchased a net NT$627 million on the Taipei Exchange, lower than the NT$6.53 billion bought a month earlier, the data showed.
“That reflected weak confidence among foreign institutional investors amid the ongoing outbreak. They were concerned with local companies’ profitability, with the outbreak disrupting supply chains and delaying companies’ resumption of operations,” a commission official surnamed Wu (吳) told the Taipei Times.
The benchmark TAIEX recovered its previous loss in the middle of February, but steadily went down with the escalating outbreak, the TWSE data showed.
Equity markets in neighboring countries also witnessed a retreat.
Due to the sell-off, the value of foreign institutional investors’ equity assets accounted for 40.69 percent of total last month, down from 41.23 percent a month earlier, Wu said.
However, the commission was not concerned about last month’s net outflow, as the amount was not particularly big, Wu said.
“The movement of foreign funds is volatile in Taiwan, with net inflow and outflow. We already saw net inflow of foreign funds earlier this week,” Wu said.
Last month’s difference between the amount of fund outflow and the amount of foreign institutional investors’ selling could be because some investors did not immediately move their funds out of Taiwan, Wu said.
Those investors might plan to buy local stocks again in the near term or simply wait for the exchange rate of the New Taiwan dollar against the US dollar to strengthen, which would help investors earn more money when converting the local currency to the greenback, Wu said.
Chinese institutional investors reported a net fund outflow of US$3.7 million after selling a net NT$316 million in local shares last month, the commission’s data showed.
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday said that its research institute has launched its first advanced artificial intelligence (AI) large language model (LLM) using traditional Chinese, with technology assistance from Nvidia Corp. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), said the LLM, FoxBrain, is expected to improve its data analysis capabilities for smart manufacturing, and electric vehicle and smart city development. An LLM is a type of AI trained on vast amounts of text data and uses deep learning techniques, particularly neural networks, to process and generate language. They are essential for building and improving AI-powered servers. Nvidia provided assistance
GREAT SUCCESS: Republican Senator Todd Young expressed surprise at Trump’s comments and said he expects the administration to keep the program running US lawmakers who helped secure billions of dollars in subsidies for domestic semiconductor manufacturing rejected US President Donald Trump’s call to revoke the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act, signaling that any repeal effort in the US Congress would fall short. US Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who negotiated the law, on Wednesday said that Trump’s demand would fail, while a top Republican proponent, US Senator Todd Young, expressed surprise at the president’s comments and said he expects the administration to keep the program running. The CHIPS Act is “essential for America leading the world in tech, leading the world in AI [artificial
DOMESTIC SUPPLY: The probe comes as Donald Trump has called for the repeal of the US$52.7 billion CHIPS and Science Act, which the US Congress passed in 2022 The Office of the US Trade Representative is to hold a hearing tomorrow into older Chinese-made “legacy” semiconductors that could heap more US tariffs on chips from China that power everyday goods from cars to washing machines to telecoms equipment. The probe, which began during former US president Joe Biden’s tenure in December last year, aims to protect US and other semiconductor producers from China’s massive state-driven buildup of domestic chip supply. A 50 percent US tariff on Chinese semiconductors began on Jan. 1. Legacy chips use older manufacturing processes introduced more than a decade ago and are often far simpler than
Gasoline and diesel prices this week are to decrease NT$0.5 and NT$1 per liter respectively as international crude prices continued to fall last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. Effective today, gasoline prices at CPC and Formosa stations are to decrease to NT$29.2, NT$30.7 and NT$32.7 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively, while premium diesel is to cost NT$27.9 per liter at CPC stations and NT$27.7 at Formosa pumps, the companies said in separate statements. Global crude oil prices dropped last week after the eight OPEC+ members said they would
RSS