The first active ETF in Taiwan, the Nomura Taiwan Smart Select ETF (00980A), officially debuted today but experienced a price drop due to the rapid appreciation of the TWD impacting the local stock market. It closed at 9.9 TWD on its first day, below the par value of 10 TWD, reflecting a single-day decline of 2.37% from last Friday's net asset value of 10.14 TWD. This event has become a hot topic in the market.

The ETF market in Taiwan has been rapidly expanding in recent years, with active ETFs becoming increasingly competitive. In addition to the launch of 00980A, China Trust Asset Management announced a partnership with the well-known U.S. active ETF asset management firm Ark Investment to launch the China Trust ARK Innovation Active ETF (00983A), focusing on five popular themes: energy storage, blockchain, artificial intelligence, gene sequencing, and robotics.

Moreover, the Fubon Taiwan Select Strong ETF (00982A) has also opened for subscription today at a price of 10 TWD per share and is set to list on May 22, with the first dividend expected in August. The Uni-President Taiwan Growth ETF (00981A) will also begin its subscription phase on May 7, further enhancing the topic of discussion in Taiwan's ETF market.

According to Yu Hongzhi, Senior Vice President of the Strategy and Marketing Department at Nomura Asset Management, since the launch of the first active ETF in the U.S. in 2008, the global active ETF market has surpassed 1 trillion USD, with projections reaching 4 trillion USD by 2030, indicating tremendous potential for the development of the Taiwan market. Experts predict that as active ETF products and themes become more diversified, investors will not just track indices anymore but actively invest in trending sectors and industries, sparking a new wave of investment enthusiasm.