Securities With Over One Million Holders Rise to 8
Taiwan equities performed strongly this year. As of October 22, the number of securities with more than one million holders rose from 7 on December 26 last year to 8, with the original 7 remaining on the list and newly added UMC joining the million-shareholder club. Yuanta Taiwan 50 (0050) topped the list with about 3.72 million beneficiaries, followed closely by TSMC with 3.167 million shareholders, followed in order by Yuanta High Dividend (0056) with 1.741 million, Cathay Sustainable High Dividend (00878) with 1.707 million, Capital Taiwan Select High Dividend (00919) with 1.501 million, China Steel with 1.293 million, Hon Hai with 1.155 million, and UMC with 1.094 million. At the end of last year, 0050 topped the list with 2.036 million, the only one to break 2 million at the time.
0050 and TSMC Each Gain Over One Million Holders
Among securities already listed at the end of last year, 0050 led with an increase of 1.685 million beneficiaries, up 82.8%; TSMC ranked second with an increase of 1.312 million shareholders, up 70.7%, of which holders of less than one board lot increased by 1.203 million, with the odd-lot share rising from 75.1% to 81.9%. Active Uni-President Taiwan Equity Growth (00981A) ranked third with an increase of 746,000, up 359.1%. Senior securities analyst Wang Zhaoli noted that amid the major bull market, AI themes, market-cap and actively managed ETFs rose strongly, and many retail investors are optimistic about the long-term outlook for TSMC but cannot afford one board lot costing over NT$2 million, and therefore chose to start with odd lots.
Leveraged 2x and Actively Managed ETFs Expand Rapidly
Excluding low-base effects and covering securities already listed at the end of last year with at least 1,000 holders at that time, ETFs took the top 3 by growth rate. Capital Taiwan Weighted 2x Leveraged (00685L) ranked first with 5238.6% growth, Cathay Taiwan-Korea Tech (00735) ranked second with 1131.3% growth, and Yuanta Taiwan 50 2x Leveraged (00631L) grew 800.7%, of which 00685L and 00631L both conducted splits this year. Actively managed ETFs increased from 15 at the end of last year to 42, with beneficiary counts rising from 698,000 to 4.493 million, up 543.6%, including the Active Uni-President Upgrade 50 (00403A) listed on May 12, which reached 785,000 in less than half a year.
Sharp Volatility Met by Domestic Buying Support
The Weighted Index climbed from about 29,000 points at the start of the year, with the intraday high once approaching 50,000 points. As of October 22, there were 17 trading days with closing gains of more than 1,000 points and 12 days with declines of more than 1,000 points, with the largest-ever single-day gain of 3186.45 points and the largest-ever single-day loss of 2953.71 points both occurring in July. Wang Zhaoli analyzed that the March pullback was affected by the U.S.-Iran conflict, June was related to an AI valuation correction and dashed expectations for U.S. Federal Reserve rate cuts, but margin balances increased rather than decreased; the July plunge was related to a crash in Korean single-stock leveraged ETFs and concerns over AI capital spending, with margin balances falling by about NT$130 billion in a single month; the October decline was affected by concerns over AI investment and free cash flow of large cloud service providers. On October 15, foreign investors sold a record-high 3025.55億元, while 0050 and Yuanta Taiwan 50 2x Leveraged saw single-day net subscriptions of more than NT$40 billion, and margin balances in the centralized market remained above NT$600 billion. Compared with South Korea's sharp volatility from leveraged trading, Taiwan investors held their ground.