Taiwan’s National Financial Stabilization Fund recorded more than NT$900 million (US$29.52 million) in unrealized losses last year, after the fund was authorized to enter the local equity market in July, according to the Ministry of Finance (MOF).

The figures were disclosed Tuesday, following a quarterly meeting of the NT$500 billion stabilization fund, which was set up in 2000 by the government to serve as a buffer against unexpected external factors that might disrupt the local bourse.

On July 12, the committee made a decision to allow the stabilization fund to make its eighth intervention in the local stock market to smooth volatility triggered by concerns over an aggressive United States Federal Reserve.

During the latest intervention, the stabilization fund posted about NT$1.17 billion in unrealized losses, the MOF said.

However, once cash dividends worth almost NT$200 million were taken into account, the unrealized losses were narrowed to NT$968 million, the MOF added.

Over the course of 121 trading sessions between July 13 and the end of December, the fund poured in a total of NT$54.51 billion into the stock market, including the NT$43.3 billion invested in the fourth quarter alone, the MOF said.

The NT$54.51 billion invested in the most recent intervention was the third largest ever, behind the fund’s NT$120 billion intervention in 2020 following the bursting of a global tech bubble, and the NT$60 billion spent in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.

Speaking with CNA, Deputy Finance Minister Juan Ching-hwa (???), who serves as executive secretary of the stabilization fund committee, said the fund would continue to intervene so long as concerns over falling global demand, slowing consumption and growing interest rates still troubled markets.

Juan said he hoped the equity market would stabilize in the second quarter of this year.

According to the MOF, the Taiex, the Taiwan Stock Exchange’s weighted index, rose 6.11 percent during the latest intervention by the fund.

This performance was below the 8.19 percent increase on the Dow Jones Industrial Average but ahead of the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (up 5.03 percent), the Hong Kong market (up 2.33 percent), the S&P 500 index (up 1.92 percent), the South Korea market (up 1.45 percent), the Japan market (down 0.61 percent), and the Shanghai market (down 3.41 percent).

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel