TSMC Rally May Extend as Foreign Ownership Still Far From Record

Jeanny Yu, Bloomberg News

, Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- Foreign holdings in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. have yet to peak amid this year’s stock surge, which may give global funds scope to keep buying.

Nvidia Corp.’s strong earnings results last week renewed the hype around AI, prompting overseas investors to boost their ownership in TSMC’s Taipei-listed shares to almost 75% as of Friday. That’s the highest level in more than two years, but still off a record from 2017, when foreign funds held more than 80% of the company’s total outstanding shares.

Global funds in aggregate are still underweight Taiwan equities as of April, a sign that more buying is ahead, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. TSMC is the most-purchased stock by overseas investors among benchmark Taiex members, in terms of the number of shares bought, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The most valuable stock in Asia is up 47% this year, contributing to about one fourth of the gains in the MSCI Asia Pacific Index.

(Updates with TSMC’s contribution to MSCI Asia gauge gains this year in the third paragraph.)