TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan's futures exchange saw a new high in 2020 as demand for risk hedging soared in the capital market due to the coronavirus outbreak and turbulence in the global political economy.
The Taiwan Futures Exchange (TAIFEX) said over 341 million contracts were traded in 2020, which was 30 percent higher in 2019 and 10 percent higher than in 2018. In 2020, demand for risk hedging increased in the capital market, with the average daily turnover in futures trading reaching 1.39 million.
TAIFEX attributed the breakthrough to a wide variety of new financial policies launched over the years, including increasing the trading time to 19 hours per day. There was also a strong demand for futures trading among institutional and retail investors who saw it as a hedging tool to overcome uncertainty in global stock and currency markets amid pandemic fears, souring U.S.-China ties, and the disputed U.S. presidential election result.
The most noteworthy growth occurred in the co-branded indices with the S&P 500, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, and the Nasdaq 100, which saw a combined turnover of 2.91 million contracts in 2020, up 44 percent from 2019, TAIFEX said.
