Chips carry the tape back above 45,000
Taipei went its own way on Friday. After Wall Street’s Thursday sell-off — the S&P 500 down 0.87% to 7,641.16 and the Dow off 1.32% amid oil-driven inflation worries and soft retail earnings — the TAIEX opened lower and tested its quarterly moving average before large-cap technology pulled the index into positive territory. It closed up 290.55 points, or 0.65%, at 45,224.29, reclaiming the 45,000 mark on turnover of NT$719.28 billion.
The divergence had a clear source: the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index bucked the broader US decline overnight, adding 0.53% to 11,800.02, and Taipei’s chip complex took the cue. TSMC (2330) rose NT$35, or 1.47%, to NT$2,410 and did most of the index’s heavy lifting. MediaTek (2454) did even better, gaining 2.43% to NT$3,790 after positive foreign brokerage research notes. UMC (2303) added 0.87% to NT$116.50. Hon Hai (2317) was the laggard among the mega-caps, slipping 0.41% to NT$245.50 at Friday’s close.
Sector breadth was better than a chip-led headline suggests. The TWSE Semiconductor sub-index rose 1.32%, but Shipping jumped 3.37% and Financials & Insurance gained 2.53% — a reminder that Friday’s bid was not confined to AI names.
Institutional flows: foreigners buy in size
All three institutional categories were net buyers on Friday, per official exchange data:
- Foreign investors: net BUY NT$28.31 billion — the day’s dominant flow, and consistent with the index’s afternoon recovery.
- Investment trusts: net BUY NT$1.88 billion.
- Dealers (proprietary + hedge): net BUY NT$2.92 billion.
- Combined: net BUY NT$33.11 billion.
A NT$28 billion foreign cash-market purchase on a day the index reversed off its quarterly average is the kind of print that tends to embolden dip-buyers, though one session does not make a trend.
Positioning: cash buying against a standing futures short
The derivatives picture is worth reading carefully, because the latest available TAIFEX data is from Wednesday, August 19 — Friday’s positioning has not yet been published. As of that prior session, foreign investors held a net short of 81,501 contracts in TAIEX futures open interest (with a modest +749 net volume on the day), and the options put/call ratio stood at 102.27% on open interest and 115.06% on volume. That describes the setup coming into recent sessions, not Friday’s reaction — but the standing contrast is notable: heavy foreign cash-market buying on Friday against a sizeable pre-existing futures net short. Whether that short narrows when fresh data lands is one of the cleaner tells available.
The leverage and short channels, kept separate
Taiwan’s three borrowing channels told three different stories through Thursday’s data (Friday’s not yet published):
- Retail leveraged longs (margin purchases): the market-wide margin loan balance stood at NT$548.4 billion, up a negligible NT$0.22 billion — retail leverage is essentially flat, not chasing.
- Institutional shorts (SBL): balances rose in 455 shortable issues and fell in 397, a mild tilt toward short-building at the market level.
- At the single-name level: SBL shorts were covered in TSMC (-110,000 shares) and UMC (-1,824,000 shares), while MediaTek saw a meaningful SBL build of +709,000 shares — an interesting tension against Friday’s 2.43% rally on bullish broker notes. Delta Electronics added a modest +111,000 shares of SBL short balance.
ADR gap and the currency
TSMC’s US-listed ADR closed Thursday at $416.00, which works out to roughly a 9.8% premium over Friday’s Taipei close. Two caveats before reading anything into that: the ADR premium is structural — it has run roughly 15-25% in recent years owing to limited fungibility — and the comparison spans different sessions, with Taipei’s Friday gain not yet reflected in the Thursday ADR print. Measured that way, the gap sits below its recent range; the number to watch is how it moves once US trading catches up, not the level itself.
The Taiwan dollar was steady, with USD/TWD closing at 31.81, essentially unchanged. Midday interbank trading had the currency quoted around NT$31.89 on US$622 million of volume before firming.
Scorecard
| Name | Close (NT$) | Change | PER (Aug. 20) | Foreign ownership |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| TSMC (2330) | 2,410.00 | +1.47% | 27.53 | 69.16% |
| MediaTek (2454) | 3,790.00 | +2.43% | 61.11 | 55.72% |
| Hon Hai (2317) | 245.50 | -0.41% | 16.25 | 40.44% |
| UMC (2303) | 116.50 | +0.87% | 17.37 | 41.1% |
Note: closing prices and changes are from Friday, August 21; PER figures use the prior session’s (August 20) TWSE valuation data.
Elsewhere in the AI supply chain, Quanta (2382) drew heavy attention after posting record Q2 EPS of NT$7.43 and lifting 2026 capital expenditure to NT$40 billion with order visibility into 2028, while Wistron (3231) held steady institutional interest on expanding AI server shipment share. Thermal names remained in focus, with TrendForce projecting liquid-cooling penetration in AI chips to reach 53% in 2026 as chip power draw pushes past 1kW.
What to watch
- NVIDIA earnings. The US session traded cautiously ahead of the print, and overnight S&P 500 futures were only modestly higher (+0.19% at 7,677). It is the obvious swing factor for Taiwan’s AI complex.
- Friday’s TAIFEX data. Whether foreign investors’ -81,501-contract futures net short (as of Aug 19) narrows alongside their NT$28.3 billion cash buying will show if Friday’s flow was conviction or hedged.
- MediaTek’s SBL build. A +709,000-share institutional short increase into a rally on positive broker notes is a disagreement worth monitoring.
Disclaimer: This is an information and analysis publication, not investment advice. See our Methodology for data sources, standards, and our corrections policy.