Donald Trump’s presidency promised a more confrontational approach toward China. While he certainly achieved that, he also helped create a winner in Taiwan’s stock market.
The Taiex benchmark surged 92% in US dollar terms since Trump’s inauguration on Jan 20, 2017, the best performance among 93 global gauges tracked by Bloomberg and far beating the MSCI All-Country World Index’s 53%.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. accounted for almost two-thirds of the Taiex’s gains, after the chipmaking giant soared almost 300% in US dollar terms. Trump’s efforts to hobble China’s plan to build a domestic chip industry has cemented Taiwan’s role as the global center for chipmaking, with TSMC at the heart. Increasing demand for smartphones and computers during the pandemic helped create a shortage of chips, benefiting TSMC further.
