Following the TAIEX’s dramatic rise over the past year, investors have turned cautious about the market’s direction going forward, a survey released by Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控) yesterday showed.
Only 10.2 percent of those polled expected the weighted index to hit a peak of 15,500 to 16,000 points and 7.1 percent expected it to end above 16,000 points, the survey showed.
A larger number, 40 percent, expected the TAIEX to peak above 15,000 points by the end of the first half, while 37.1 percent expected it to peak between 14,500 and 15,000 points, it showed.
Photo: CNA
The index fell 0.45 percent yesterday to close at 15,806.18.
The report surveyed 20,912 of Cathay Financial’s clients between Jan. 1 and Jan. 7, when the TAIEX climbed from 14,732 points to 15,214 points.
As a majority of Cathay’s clients are retail investors, their predictions likely reflect public confidence in the market rather than a research-based forecast about the market, a Cathay Financial official surnamed Wu (吳) told the Taipei Times by telephone.
“Given that when we conducted a similar poll in January last year, with the TAIEX at about 12,000 points at the time, only 27 percent of respondents forecast that the TAIEX would continue climbing and peak above 12,500 points, it seems that Taiwanese are more upbeat about the stock market this year,” Wu said.
Their optimism corresponds with a rise in their risk preference, with 33.3 percent of respondents willing to withdraw their fixed deposits and invest them in the stock market, up from 30.6 percent a month earlier and 25.6 percent a year earlier, Wu said.
Overall, 46.3 percent of respondents expected the TAIEX to continue rising in the next six months, followed by 16.7 percent who believed it would be flat and 23.4 percent predicting that it would decline, the survey showed.
Meanwhile, public confidence in the economy picked up, with 43.8 percent forecasting that the economy would improve in the next six months, up from 42.5 percent a month earlier, which could be attributed to the rising availability of COVID-19 vaccines, Cathay said.
However, respondents’ willingness to buy durable goods, such as vehicles or home appliances, and to make big-ticket purchases, such as travel or shopping, diverged, with the former growing from 20.7 percent a month earlier to 22.6 percent, while the latter declined from 29.5 percent to 28.5 percent, the survey showed.
Wu said it was quite curious, “as people were usually more willing to make big-ticket purchases rather than spending on durable goods during past economic recoveries.”
This might be due to rising demand for electronic goods because of the work-from-home trend or falling demand for travel because of strict border controls, Wu said.
COMPETITION: AMD, Intel and Qualcomm are unveiling new laptop and desktop parts in Las Vegas, arguing their technologies provide the best performance for AI workloads Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD), the second-biggest maker of computer processors, said its chips are to be used by Dell Technologies Inc for the first time in PCs sold to businesses. The chipmaker unveiled new processors it says would make AMD-based PCs the best at running artificial intelligence (AI) software. Dell has decided to use the chips in some of its computers aimed at business customers, AMD executives said at CES in Las Vegas on Monday. Dell’s embrace of AMD for corporate PCs — it already uses the chipmaker for consumer devices — is another blow for Intel Corp as the company
MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday said it is teaming up with Nvidia Corp to develop a new chip for artificial intelligence (AI) supercomputers that uses architecture licensed from Arm Holdings PLC. The new product is targeting AI researchers, data scientists and students rather than the mass PC market, the company said. The announcement comes as MediaTek makes efforts to add AI capabilities to its Dimensity chips for smartphones and tablets, Genio family for the Internet of Things devices, Pentonic series of smart TVs, Kompanio line of Arm-based Chromebooks, along with the Dimensity auto platform for vehicles. MeidaTek, the world’s largest chip designer for smartphones
TECH PULL: Electronics heavyweights also attracted strong buying ahead of the CES, analysts said. Meanwhile, Asian markets were mixed amid Trump’s incoming presidency Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) shares yesterday closed at a new high in the wake of a rally among tech stocks on Wall Street on Friday, moving the TAIEX sharply higher by more than 600 points. TSMC, the most heavily weighted stock in the TAIEX, rose 4.65 percent to close at a new high of NT$1,125, boosting its market value to NT$29.17 trillion (US$888 billion) and contributing about 400 points to the TAIEX’s rise. The TAIEX ended up 639.41 points, or 2.79 percent, at 23,547.71. Turnover totaled NT$406.478 billion, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. The surge in TSMC follows a positive performance
FUTURE TECH: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang would give the keynote speech at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, which is also expected to highlight autonomous vehicles Gadgets, robots and vehicles imbued with artificial intelligence (AI) would once again vie for attention at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this week, as vendors behind the scenes would seek ways to deal with tariffs threatened by US president-elect Donald Trump. The annual Consumer Electronics Show opens formally in Las Vegas tomorrow, but preceding days are packed with product announcements. AI would be a major theme of the show, along with autonomous vehicles ranging from tractors and boats to lawn mowers and golf club trollies. “Everybody is going to be talking about AI,” Creative Strategies Inc analyst Carolina Milanesi said. “From fridges to ovens
RSS