The Financial Supervisory Commission has announced that a temporary ban on the short selling of stocks under certain circumstances will be lifted on Monday.
The ban was imposed by the regulator in late August. It prohibited investors from short selling stocks or Taiwan depositary receipts that had fallen below the closing prices of the previous session. The goal was to ease irrational market movement and revive investor confidence.
Chairman of the commission, William Tseng, said on Friday that the decision to lift the ban was mainly based on a number of considerations. He said one was the US Federal Reserve’s decision to keep key interest rates unchanged. He also said Taiwan’s benchmark index rebounded and closed at a level that he called “relatively stable”. In addition, Tseng said that the ban was an extraordinary measure capable of hurting the market’s vitality, and it was time to lift it.