02 September 2008

10,000 is an ever distant dream!

A few people have commented on how Ma Ying-jeou had promised to lift the ailing stock market here in Taiwan to above NTD10,000. Yesterday it closed dismally at a memorable 6,699, a two year low. Everything is getting hammered. Amongst the stocks I watch the fabless design houses are taking the biggest hit. At the time of writing, 13 of the 15 fabless design houses I monitor saw greater than 6.5% declines in there share prices.

Commenting on yesterdays dismal declines and today's earlier performance, Forbes said:

Share prices closed at near two-year low as technology firms remained weak on fears of a demand slowdown and following Hon Hai Precision Industry's disappointing first-half earnings.

The tourism sector also lost further ground as the anticipated post-Olympics flood of tourists from mainland China has yet to materialize.

A big drop in oil prices provided some relief to investors, but it proved insufficient to offset ongoing worries about the global economy.

Weak showing on major Asian markets also kept trade cautious.

The weighted index closed down 113.27 points or 1.66 pct at 6,699.82, the lowest level since 6,681.09 registered on Sept 15, 2006.

The index today moved in the 6,675.09 to 6,811.57 range. Turnover was 92.15 bln twd.

It got uglier by the close. The index closed at 6,584.93, a 1.71% drop from yesterday. I guess there is no escaping the doom and gloom around the world. Yesterday the Dow Jones ended down 0.23% and the NASDAQ down 0.77%. The Hang Seng at the time of writing was also down 1.83%.

I don't think Mr. Ma can do anything about it right now. Investors are running scared. The global economy is apparently in a downswing and Taiwan will not be immune. But Mr. Ma did promise didn't he?

Forbes: Taipei shares close at near 2-yr low; techs remain weak on demand worries

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Of course he promised to reach 10k. Saying he'd fix the economy was the easiest way to win the election.

If the stock market goes up at the end of his term in office, maybe he can stay for 4 more years.

It amazes me that so few in Taiwan can see the connection between global markets and the Taiwan stock market.