Shares fell yesterday after US stocks pulled back overnight, but memory chip companies Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) and Inotera Memories Inc (華亞科技) bucked the trend on strong earnings for the second quarter.
The TAIEX dropped 23.73 points, or 0.4 percent, to 6,420.01 on turnover of NT$65.19 billion (US$1.99 billion).
Decliners led risers 590 to 386, with 118 stocks unchanged.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), the world's largest contract chipmaker by revenue, fell 2.3 percent to NT$54.9. Its smaller rival United Microelectronics Corp (聯電) dropped 0.8 percent to NT$18.25.
Memory chip companies still managed to rise after announcing strong second-quarter earnings and on outlooks for brisk demand in the second half of the year.
Nanya Technology rose 1.4 percent to NT$22.1 after it reported an unaudited net profit of NT$3.71 billion for the second quarter, reversing a net loss of NT$972 million in the period a year earlier, on a rise in memory-chip selling prices and strong demand.
Inotera Memories gained 0.1 percent to NT$35.8. It said its unaudited net profit in the second quarter jumped more than three times to NT$4.19 billion from the NT$1.15 billion for the same period last year.
Looking ahead, traders said shares were unlikely to fall much further.
"The market will start focusing on Taiwanese corporate earnings next week, but since most of the negative factors were already priced in after the past week's declines, I would expect a relatively small downside," said Bill Huang, a KGI Securities (
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