Stock Market

The GTSM index fluctuated and then dropped precipitously in the month of January. In the beginning of the month, the index ended down on most days amid profit taking and pullback of electronic stocks after significant gains. Only construction and textile stocks outperformed the market. After the middle of the month, electronic stocks stabilized gradually with large-cap stocks such as Simplo, Moteck, Chinese Gamer and Coretronic making considerable gains and leading the index to firm up. The index closed at a recent new high of 150.28 on the 18th. However from the 19th on, the market skid in panic sell-off amid worry that the National Stabilization Fund would soon release some of its holdings, sharp decline in the U.S. stock markets over President Obama’s call for new restrictions on the operations of banks, and concern over China’s plan to tighten its monetary policy. The index fell sharply from 150.28 on the 18th to 130.01 on the 27th, losing 13.45% in merely seven trading days. The index closed at 132.28 at the end of the month, off 11.84% from the end of December.

In the Emerging Stock Market, the average daily turnover amounted to NT$838 million and a total of 103,086 transactions executed in the month of January. At the beginning of month, there were 223 stocks registered as emerging stocks, which was increased to 231 by the end of month as 3 stocks transferred to the general board of GTSM or TSE or were delisted and 11 new stocks registered. The market recorded the highest turnover of the month on the 6th with more than NT$1,073 million.