The nation’s securities account balance, a gauge of retail investors’ confidence in local equities, fell to the lowest level in five months last month, as the TAIEX continued to consolidate and stock trading momentum slowed, the central bank said on Tuesday.
The securities account balance declined to NT$3.25 trillion (US$100.5 billion) from NT$3.35 trillion in the previous month, data compiled by the central bank showed.
It had dropped for the second straight month and hit its lowest since April, when the balance stood at NT$3.19 trillion, the data showed.
Photo: Taipei Times file photo
Foreign institutional investors’ New Taiwan dollar-denominated deposit balance also decreased to NT$185.5 billion last month, down for the second consecutive month and reaching the lowest in three-and-a-half years, the bank said in a report.
Retail investors accounted for 57.7 percent of the trading volume, compared with 57.8 percent one month earlier, while foreign institutional players accounted for 31.5 percent, down from 32.5 percent, it said.
Local investors were relatively cautious amid intensified market volatility last month, as the tech sector, especially artificial intelligence-related stocks, came under heavy pressure, Central Bank Department of Economic Research Deputy Director-General Tsai Hui-mei (蔡惠美) told the Chinese-language Economic Daily News yesterday.
Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors adjusted their TAIEX holdings amid rising concerns about global economic risks, particularly a weakening Chinese economy, and the continued depreciation of Asian currencies against the US dollar, Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co (元大投顧) said in a recent note.
The TAIEX averaged 17,072 points in July, but fell to 16,648 in August and dropped further to 16,570 last month, central bank data showed.
The securities account balance decreased by NT$203.9 billion in the past two months and foreign institutional investors net sold NT$188.9 billion of local shares over the same period.
The decline pushed M1B money supply — a narrower measurement of money in circulation, including currency and passbook savings deposits — down 0.27 percent from August, the central bank said in the same report on Tuesday.
On an annual basis, M1B grew 2.76 percent, the report said.
The broader M2 monetary aggregate — which includes M1B, time deposits, foreign-currency deposits and mutual funds — edged up 0.08 percent monthly and 5.98 percent annually, it added.
During the first nine months of the year, M1B rose 2.71 percent and M2 advanced 6.53 percent from a year earlier, the data showed.
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