Taiwan share prices slumped 2.83 percent yesterday in active trade because of laggard selling a day after a holiday closure spared it from falls across global equity markets, dealers said.
The weighted index closed down 223.29 points at 7,678.67, after moving between 7,663.17 and 7,761.40, on turnover of NT$136.05 billion (US$4.14 billion).
"Things could have turned out even worse," said Oliver Fang of Yuanta Core Pacific Securities (
Only a few stocks closed limit-down, reflecting market resilience amid high selling pressure, he said.
The expanded volume of trade against such a sharp downturn in the benchmark index also indicated the early emergence of bargain-hunting to take advantage of the drop in share prices, Fang said.
"There were actually a good number of foreign investors that opted to go bargain-hunting rather than join the sell-off," he said.
Fang said the bourse will have to look to other markets, especially Wall Street and China, for a fresh direction in the near term.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manu-facturing Co (
Powerchip Semiconductor Corp (力晶半導體) lost NT$0.25 to NT$21.25, showing relative resilience against the general decline, thanks to its addition to the MSCI indices and hopes for a rebound in DRAM prices.



