The TAIEX gained 837 points in a week to close at 49,313, within reach of 50,000. Individual stocks split between gains of more than 40% and losses of more than 30%, while September exports of 87.2 billion dollars set a new monthly record.
In the week before the National Day holiday, Taiwan's index and its individual stocks followed different scripts. According to the United Daily News, the TAIEX closed on the 8th at 49,313, up 837 points or 1.73% on the week, and came close to 50,000 during trading. The over-the-counter index, by contrast, slipped 0.05% to 426. Large-cap heavyweights held up the index while the market's heat moved to small and mid-sized stocks with clear themes.
광고 문의 · 300×250Ten stocks up more than 26% in a week, and the other side
All ten of the week's top gainers rose more than 26%, and eight of them trade over the counter. Zhongmao rose 46.05%, Yingxing 45.85%, Guanxidian 40.78% and Baiyi 33.76%. Power-amplifier maker the supplier 宏捷科 closed limit-up at NT$154 on the 8th, helped by a shift from mid-to-low-end phones into Chinese flagship and Korean handset models and an expansion into drone PAs and short-range optical VCSELs. Chip-packaging firm 台星科 also closed limit-up, at NT$238.5, with high-performance computing at about 51% of revenue and a 2-nanometer product reported to have passed certification.
On the other side, the Liberty Times called it the worst week for the high-flyers. 巨虹 fell 33.94%, followed by 耀穎 at 27.42%, 百達-KY at 24.09% and 東森 at 20.26%. The tenth name on the decliners' list was server-rail maker 川湖 (down 12.6%). With the index pressing toward 50,000, the gap between winners and losers was stretched to an extreme within a single week.
川湖 is the telling case. Its September revenue of NT$4.464 billion fell 30.9% from August, ending six straight months of records, because rush orders from cloud providers and AI neocloud operators in July and August did not repeat in September. Revenue merely returned to June's level and is still nearly double a year earlier, so the fundamentals have not collapsed, but the shares hit limit-down two days running and fell to NT$10,615. Analysts expect demand for custom server racks to keep growing and put its share of AI-server rails above 80%.
Fund flows are another variable. In the three sessions before the holiday, foreign investors were net sellers of about NT$100 billion, and on the 8th alone the index fell 492 points as turnover shrank to NT$924.5 billion. Market watchers say turnover would need to swell to around NT$1.2 trillion for the uptrend to resume after the break. Domestic investment houses such as KGI and President Securities, however, see 50,000 as the start of the next leg rather than the end of the bull run.
Exports of 87.2 billion dollars, up for 35 straight months
Behind the market's heat are real exports. Taipei Times, citing the Ministry of Finance, reported that September exports came to US$87.22 billion, up 60.9% from a year earlier, a monthly record and the 35th consecutive month of growth. Exports of information, communications and audio-video products more than doubled, with graphics cards, servers, storage devices, switches and routers each posting triple-digit growth. Electronic components rose 45.3%.
Third-quarter exports rose 44.6% to US$244.92 billion, above the government's August forecast, and the paper noted that this leaves room to raise this year's 11.05% growth forecast. By destination, shipments to the United States more than doubled and those to Southeast Asia rose 93.4%, together accounting for about 70% of the increase. Imports rose 51.7% to a record US$63.59 billion, and the monthly trade surplus of US$23.63 billion was also the largest ever. January-September exports of US$661.55 billion already exceed last year's full-year total of US$640.69 billion.
Beatrice Tsai (蔡美娜), head of the ministry's statistics department, said growth momentum should continue in October, with exports projected to rise 40% to 44% and a chance of another record. AI infrastructure spending and year-end shopping demand in China, Europe and the United States provide support, but changes in trade policy and geopolitical tensions are the main risks. The same AI demand behind South Korea's chip boom showed up in Taiwan this week as both export figures and a split stock market.