Taiwan Stock Market Stabilizes

Taipei, Aug. 10, 2011 (CENS)--Thanks to the buying force from banks with major government stakes, Taiex index managed to withstand the heavy selloff from foreign investors, closing at 7,493 points yesterday (Aug. 9), for a moderate drop of 59 points, after experiencing a wild fluctuation in midsession, with the gap between the highest and lowest point reaching near 400 points.

Stimulated by the wild fluctuation in the index, trading volume expanded to NT$200.5 billion, the largest since Jan. 7 this year.

During the four trading sessions from August 4, Taiex index has plunged 1,348 points, or at a scale of 15.8%, and the outstanding amount of margin trading had plummeted to NT$34 billion.

Banks with major government stakes spent some NT$5 billion buying stocks yesterday, including NT$2.04 billion by Bank of Taiwan, followed by First Financial Holding with NT$1.1 billion, and Mega Financial Holding with NT$851 million. A banking manager noted that those banks still have some NT$160 billion in hand for investing in the stock market.

Meanwhile, the four major government funds, namely labor pension fund, labor retirement fund, postal fund, and pension fund for public functionaries, appear to have already started buying stocks.

The buying force successfully offset the selloff by foreign investors, which oversold NT$33 billion worth of stocks yesterday. During Aug. 1-9, foreign investors oversold NT$103.1 billion of Taiwanese stocks.

However, since foreign investors haven't repatriated their funds out of the nation, the exchange rate of the NT dollar has remained relatively stable. The exchange rate of the NT dollar closed at US$1=NT$29.05 yesterday, for a minor depreciation of NT$0.025, with the forex trading volume expanding to US$2.273 billion.