Taiex Rises

Taiwan dollar stronger at the open, USD/TWD retracing yesterday's gains last trading at 27.92.

• Citi sees challenges for TWD going forward: "Most of East Asia were cautious to begin their vaccine rollouts, in part due to their success in containing Covid-19 in the first place as seen in Figure 5. However, we are now seeing the likes of THB, TWD and SGD facing lockdown risk once again. Taiwan's Covid-19 alert level was increased to Level 3 on Wednesday, which represents limited restrictions. If daily reported Covid-19 cases continue to be above 100 for 14 consecutive days from May 15 to May 29, health authorities expect full lockdowns. Under the highest tier restriction (Level 4), members of the public are only allowed to leave home to buy food, to seek medical care and for work needs."
• Taiwan lawmakers are expected to review a bill to add a further TWD 210bn to help protect the economy from the pandemic after the latest developments. The cap on spending was lifted to TWD 630bn from TWD 420bn, with most of the existing funds having already been spent or earmarked. As a note there were 295 new cases in total on Thursday. There was speculation that a full lockdown could be looming, but a minister said conditions currently do not support further raising the alert level to four noting that requirements include an average of 100 new local cases daily, half of which don't have a clear source.
• The Taiex is the early leader in equity markets, the index up 2.04% in early trade following two sessions of declines. The index is still down around 7% from highs, but a 5% gain earlier this week and the upside today has helped the index recover from losses of around 13% at the nadir. A Taiwanese official has said that the chip industry will be protected if the US extends vaccine aid to Taiwan. Separately there was a story that the Biden administration is seeking ways to help semiconductor producers and buyers share supply chain information to alleviate the global chip supply crisis, and urged Congress to swiftly pass legislation to fund domestic production.