MAGNETIC PULL:Surging share prices have drawn in major retail investors, while foreign institutional investors were responsible for 24% of trading, compared to 14% for local ones

Taipei Times
Date: Oct 16, 2017
By: Staff writer, with CNA

The semiconductor sector drove last week’s upturn in the local stock market, boosting the market’s capitalization by almost 1.8 percent, the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) said.

With contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) steaming ahead, the market cap of the main bourse rose about NT$560.46 billion (US$18.57 billion), or 1.79 percent from a week earlier, to NT$31.94 trillion, while the market cap of the semiconductor sector gained NT$473.5 billion, TWSE data showed.

The TAIEX on Friday closed up 0.12 points at 10,724.09, the 100th consecutive trading session in which share prices traded above that level, the longest run for the index above that level in its history.

Foreign institutional investors last week bought a net 34.80 million TSMC shares, sending the company’s stock up 5.79 percent to close at NT$237.5 on Friday and boosting its market cap to reach NT$6.16 trillion, the highest on the main bourse.
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