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TAIEX rises despite local outbreak as shares of container shippers climb
SURGE: Transactions in the shipping sub-index made up 37 percent of all transactions, which an investor said indicated a shaky structure of market participants
By Kao Shih-ching / Staff reporter
The TAIEX yesterday gained 0.22 percent to 16,338.29 points, despite rising numbers of locally transmitted COVID-19 cases in the nation over the weekend.
“The surging cases weighed on the stock market, but it was offset by investors’ passion for container shipping stocks, given strong freight rates and local shippers’ rosy profits last quarter,” Hua Nan Securities Investment Management Co (華南投顧) chairman David Chu (儲祥生) said by telephone.
The TAIEX yesterday sank by 680.76 points, or 4.11 percent, to close at 15,902.37 points, the second-
largest one-day drop after a fall of 696 points on Jan. 30 last year, amid concern over the rising number of local COVID-19 infections, analysts said.
The weighted index, which closed at 16,583.13 points on Tuesday, opened down and lost 300 points in the first 15 minutes of trading, before climbing to 16,550 points at 9:46am, Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) data showed.
However, it lost its footing again, plunging 1,400 points to 15,165.27 points at 11:25am. That represented a drop of 9 percent the largest