Taipei Rebounds on Its Fund’s Pledge; Seoul Slides

TAIPEI, Nov. 9 — Taiwan’sTaiwan’s stock market posted its second-largest one-day gain in points on Monday, the Taiex rising 4.94 percent to 41,661.70, after the management committee of the island’s National Financial Stabilization Fund authorized it on Friday to step into the market, dealers said, according to Taiwan’s Central News Agency.

Seoul could not hold on: the Kospi rallied in the morning, reaching 5,172.94, then turned lower in the afternoon and closed down 0.81 percent at 5,018.85, as foreign investors sold for a seventh straight session, Money Today Broadcast reported.

Tokyo rose with Taipei: the Nikkei 225 gained 2.33 percent, to 58,775.50. SoftBank Group, which reports its results on Tuesday, fell 4.20 percent, to ¥3,400, as the company “maneuvered to salvage a $5.4 billion robotics deal with Switzerland’s ABB that Chinese regulators have rejected,” the Associated Press reported.

Measured from Oct. 30, the Friday before the election week’s rout, the Kospi is now down 12.42 percent, the worst of the three; the Taiex is down 7.85 percent and the Nikkei 7.13 percent. Taipei’s one session won back more than a third of the 5,510 points the Taiex lost last week.

The Pledge

The gain was surpassed only by a 3,186.45-point rise on July 31, CNA reported. “With the government’s pledge to intervene in the market, investor sentiment improved, prompting many investors to buy on dips today,” Kevin Su, an analyst at Hua Nan Securities, said, as quoted by CNA.From the TopBefore Monday’s rally the Taiex had fallen about 10,267 points, or 20.55 percent, from its intraday high of 49,968.92 on Oct. 6, CNA reported. It was the 10th time the fund, set up in 2000 with an initial NT$500 billion, has been cleared to intervene, CNA reported; the committee’s Friday decision was reported in this paper. CNA’s account of the close did not say whether the fund had actually bought shares, and this paper found no report that it had.

TSMC, which accounts for more than 40 percent of the Taiex’s market value, rose 4.68 percent, to NT$2,235, and supplied about 800 points of the gain, by CNA’s count.TSMNYSE388.62▲13.18+3.5%Taiwan Semiconductor · Monday’s session MediaTek, ASE Technology, Delta Electronics and Yageo each closed up the daily limit of 10 percent. “Trading volume was constrained as many stocks reached their daily price limits, leaving some buy orders unfilled,” Mr. Su said.

With the government’s pledge to intervene in the market, investor sentiment improved, prompting many investors to buy on dips today.

Foreign institutions were still net sellers, offloading NT$90.06 billion of shares on the main board on Monday, CNA reported.

The Sellers

In Seoul, foreigners sold a net 650.9 billion won of Kospi shares and individuals 486.7 billion won, while institutions bought 687.3 billion won, MTN reported. Samsung Electronics rose 0.64 percent, to 189,900 won, and SK hynix 0.35 percent, to 1,136,000 won, Yonhap reported. The Associated Press called those “very modest gains for companies whose share prices have yo-yoed as investors dumped and then snapped up AI-related shares over the past few weeks.”Since Oct. 30SK hynix is down 19.89 percent from its Oct. 30 close of 1,418,000 won, and Samsung 15.60 percent from 225,000 won. Foreigners sold a net about 7.6 trillion won of the two last week, as this paper reported.

“Investors were searching for direction while bargain hunting continued in semiconductors,” Lee Kyoung-min, an analyst at Daishin Securities, said, as quoted by Yonhap. Yonhap put the Kospi’s fall down to uncertainties facing the AI industry, “including an internal probe at Nvidia Corp.,” whose board said on Sunday it was opening an independent investigation after reports that Jensen Huang, its chief executive, had been the target of a foreign intelligence effort, as this paper reports.

The region’s next tests come early Tuesday, New York time: TSMC reports its October sales at 1:30 p.m. in Taipei (12:30 a.m. Eastern), and SoftBank discloses its results at 3:30 p.m. in Tokyo (1:30 a.m. Eastern). Then, at 8:30 a.m., comes America’s October consumer price index, which Mr. Su said investors should watch closely for clues to the Federal Reserve’s next move.