Taipei: Shares in Taiwan posted a record daily gain of more than 1,700 points on Monday to close above the 40,000-point mark for the first time, led by large-cap semiconductor stocks amid optimism about the current AI boom, dealers said. The Taiex, the Taiwan Stock Exchange's benchmark index, ended up 1,778.51 points, or 4.57 percent, at 40,705.14 after moving between 39,228.39 and 40,755.52. Turnover totaled NT$1.01 trillion (US$31.51 billion).
According to Focus Taiwan, buying in the semiconductor industry was sparked by massive spending proposed by major U.S. cloud service providers (CSP) to enhance their AI infrastructure. The four major U.S. CSPs-Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Meta-proposed an aggregate of about US$725 billion in capital expenditure in 2026, up 77 percent from 2025, during their investor conferences last week.
TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.) emerged as the largest beneficiary of the trend, prompting investors to rush to pick shares, which drove the Taiex sharply higher. TSMC, which accounts for over 40 percent of the total market value, rose 6.56 percent to close at a high of NT$2,275.00, contributing approximately 1,110 points to the Taiex's rise. This led the electronics index and the semiconductor subindex to jump by 5.58 percent and 6.75 percent, respectively.
Smartphone IC designer MediaTek Inc. surged 10 percent, the maximum daily increase, to end at NT$2,870.00, benefiting from its efforts in application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) development to meet demand for AI devices. Memory chip supplier Nanya Technology Corp. also soared 10 percent to close at NT$237.00 due to a supply shortage. IC packaging and testing service firm ASE Technology Holding Co. saw a 10 percent increase to close at NT$528.00, driven by robust AI applications.
Outside the semiconductor industry, iPhone assembler and AI server maker Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. gained 3.64 percent to close at NT$227.50, while Quanta Computer Inc., another AI server supplier, added 1.76 percent to end at NT$318.00. Despite the focus on electronics, nontech stocks experienced a decline. Formosa Petrochemical Corp. shed 4.26 percent to close at NT$54.00, and Formosa Chemicals and Fibre Corp. lost 2.87 percent to end at NT$50.80. Shinkong Synthetic Fibers Corp. and rival Far Eastern New Century Corp. each dropped over 1 percent to close at NT$16.60.
However, the electric machinery industry defied the trend due to the need for resilient electricity supply infrastructure during the AI era. Shihlin Electric and Engineering Corp. rose 6.33 percent to close at NT$201.50, while Allis Electric Co. jumped 10 percent to end at NT$121.00. In the financial sector, which saw a minor loss of 0.17 percent, Cathay Financial Holding Co. fell 1.30 percent to close at NT$76.20, whereas Fubon Financial Holding Co. ended up 1.11 percent at NT$91.00. According to the TWSE, foreign institutional investors bought a net NT$66.98 billion of shares on the main board Monday.