Taiwan’s money supply, measured by movements in the M1B and M2 gauges, logged annual gains of 17.36 percent and 9.02 percent respectively last month, as local individual investors increased investments in the local bourse, the central bank said on Friday.
The pace of the increases represented a minor slowdown from May, when the narrower M1B money supply gauge, measuring cash and cash equivalents, rose 17.74 percent and the broader M2 gauge, which includes M1B, time deposits, time savings deposits, foreign currency deposits and mutual funds, rose 9.21 percent.
The M1B gauge is often used to access stock investment interest. Investors are said to prefer to hold on to cash to guard against market volatility when M2 growth outpaces M1B growth.
Photo: CNA
Securities accounts, a main M1B growth driver this year, climbed to a record NT$3.05 trillion (US$108.82 billion), while margin lending rose to NT$347.5 billion, the highest since June 2011, the bank said.
Retail investors accounted for 73.7 percent of daily turnover on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE), the highest since January 2010, the central bank said.
An easing of odd-lot regulations and day-trading rules seemed to have attracted younger and less affluent investors to trade on the local bourse, the central bank added.
However, overseas and foreign players only accounted for 19.2 percent, the lowest since April 2012, the central bank said.
Foreign portfolio managers have this year trimmed holdings in local shares, wiring US$1.91 billion abroad last month in the hope of pursuing better returns in other markets, the bank said.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last