The TAIEX yesterday bounced back to close 0.89 percent higher at 14,464.53 points, after news that former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe had been shot at a political campaign event sent the market tumbling in intraday trading, Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) data showed.
The TAIEX joined other Asian stocks falling in afternoon trading after Abe’s assassination erased gains made earlier yesterday, the exchanges’ data showed.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 closed up 0.1 percent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index closed up 0.38 percent, South Korea’s KOSPI rose 0.7 percent and Singapore’s Straits Times Index edged up 0.06 percent, while the Shanghai Composite Index shed 0.25 percent, the data showed.
Photo: Chien Li-chung, Taipei Times
Turnover on the TAIEX was NT$257.3 billion (US$8.64 billion), as foreign institutional investors sold a net NT$3.93 billion of local shares, the third-largest this week, TWSE data showed.
Despite the TAIEX’s earlier retreat, contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) ended the day 2.08 percent higher at NT$467 on turnover of NT$18.25 billion, making it the heaviest traded stock yesterday, TWSE data showed.
Evergreen Marine Corp (長榮海運) followed with NT$16.23 billion in transactions. The shipper’s share price rose 4.86 percent to NT$92.7, supported by a record-high revenue of NT$60 billion last month, the data showed.
SinoPac Securities Investment Service Corp (永豐投顧) said in a research note that it expects the TAIEX to rebound gradually after tumbling 18 percent over the past five months.
Citing historical trends, the investment consultancy said there was little likelihood — about 10 percent — that the TAIEX would enter a bear market, or a fall of 20 percent from a recent peak.
“US and world inflation is the main factor affecting global stock markets. The market’s takeaway from the US’ latest inflation figure, which is to be released on Wednesday next week, will be crucial,” SinoPac Securities Investment said in the research note.
Foreign institutional investors have been net sellers for five consecutive weeks, but the amount of their net selling narrowed this week, PGIM Securities Investment Trust Enterprise Co (PGIM, 保德信投信) said in a note.
Local institutional investors have a higher confidence in the local market than foreign investors, PGIM said, citing their net purchases of local shares for three weeks in a row.
They bought a net NT$10.3 billion of local shares this week, the second highest in a single week this year, it said.
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