TSMC shareholders increase after share price drop

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) last week recorded an increase in the number of shareholders to the highest in almost eight months, despite its share price falling 3.38 percent from the previous week, Taiwan Stock Exchange data released on Saturday showed.As of Friday, TSMC had 1.88 million shareholders, the most since the week of April 25 and an increase of 31,870 from the previous week, the data showed.The number of shareholders jumped despite a drop of NT$50 (US$1.59), or 3.38 percent, in TSMC’s share price from a week earlier to NT$1,430, as investors took profits from their earlier gains amid volatility among tech stocks in the US.The fall pushed down TSMC’s market capitalization by NT$1.29 trillion to NT$37.08 trillion in one week, the exchange’s data showed.However, the lower stock price prompted buying by retail investors who hold odd lots, sending the number soaring over the past week by 25,217 to about 1.4 million as of Friday, the data showed. Odd-lot trading typically makes it easier for retail investors to buy high-priced stocks such as TSMC in quantities of fewer than 1,000 shares. This week, the number of investors who held 1,000 to 5,000 TSMC shares rose by 5,839 to 376,597 as of Friday, while the number of investors who held 1 million or more of TSMC shares increased by 12 to 1,541.TSMC, the most heavily weighted stock on the local main board, is expected to continue to benefit from strong global demand for its high-end processes, including 3-nanometer node technology and sophisticated 3D chip-on-wafer-on-substrate integrated chip packaging services, to meet strong global demand for artificial intelligence applications, market analysts said.