(Oct 22): Taiwan’s stock exchange will shut on Friday as Typhoon Champi approaches the island, bringing heavy rainfall and strong winds and prompting authorities to shut offices and schools in capital city Taipei.

While the storm has weakened from super typhoon strength, its top sustained winds remain at 213km (132 miles) per hour, equivalent to a Category 4 hurricane. The storm reached super typhoon strength earlier this week, making it the 10th to reach that level in the northwest Pacific Ocean this season. 

That’s double the long-term average and just shy of a record 13 in 2015 — also an El Nino year, according to the Hong Kong Observatory. Storms tend to form farther east during the climate phenomenon, giving a cyclone more time to accumulate energy over open and warm waters as it churns towards land.

“The 185 miles per hour peak is behind us,” said James Caron, director of meteorological operations for North America and Asia at Atmospheric G2, referring to Champi’s earlier intensity that made it one of the world’s post powerful storms this year. “The risks that matter now are rain and the size of the wind field, not peak wind.”

Taiwan’s stock exchange is the fifth-largest globally, with a market capitalisation of more than US$5 trillion (RM20.39 trillion). It is also closed Monday for a holiday, leaving the island with an added trading gap versus others in the region. 

The tech-heavy stock market, along with South Korea and Japan, has seen selloffs in recent sessions as investors track earnings from global tech giants. The Taiwan dollar also weakened this week, weighed down by foreign capital outflows.

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