The TAIEX closed 1.92 percent lower yesterday as inflation worries intensified after the new government decided to lift a freeze on gasoline and power tariffs, dealers said.
The weighted index closed down 173.30 points at the day’s low of 8,834.73, off a high of 9,050.78, on turnover of NT$148.28 billion (US$4.86 billion).
Decliners led risers 2,035 to 451, while 204 stocks were unchanged. A total of 44 stocks closed limit-down and 16 limit-up.
Transport firms fell sharply on the impending fuel price hike, while heavyweight technology and financial firms were also down on worries over the economy and consumer spending, dealers said.
The transport sector fell 2.87 percent, the electronics sector lost 2.55 percent and the financial sector was down 1.86 percent.
However, tourism stocks again outperformed after the Cabinet said on Thursday that it remained committed to bringing in more tourists from China, dealers said.
The tourism sector was up 2.20 percent and the food sector added 0.30 percent.
“People were spooked by the specter of inflation,” said Alex Huang (黃國偉), an assistant vice-president at Mega International Investment Services (兆豐國際投顧).
Huang said the consumer price index is expected to spike following the hikes in fuel and electricity prices.
For the week to yesterday, the weighted index closed down 362.68 points, or 3.94 percent, at 8,834.73, after a 4.61 percent rise a week earlier.
Average daily turnover stood at NT$151.24 billion, compared with NT$147.58 billion the previous week.
IN THE AIR: While most companies said they were committed to North American operations, some added that production and costs would depend on the outcome of a US trade probe Leading local contract electronics makers Wistron Corp (緯創), Quanta Computer Inc (廣達), Inventec Corp (英業達) and Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶) are to maintain their North American expansion plans, despite Washington’s 20 percent tariff on Taiwanese goods. Wistron said it has long maintained a presence in the US, while distributing production across Taiwan, North America, Southeast Asia and Europe. The company is in talks with customers to align capacity with their site preferences, a company official told the Taipei Times by telephone on Friday. The company is still in talks with clients over who would bear the tariff costs, with the outcome pending further
WEAKER ACTIVITY: The sharpest deterioration was seen in the electronics and optical components sector, with the production index falling 13.2 points to 44.5 Taiwan’s manufacturing sector last month contracted for a second consecutive month, with the purchasing managers’ index (PMI) slipping to 48, reflecting ongoing caution over trade uncertainties, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The decline reflects growing caution among companies amid uncertainty surrounding US tariffs, semiconductor duties and automotive import levies, and it is also likely linked to fading front-loading activity, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said. “Some clients have started shifting orders to Southeast Asian countries where tariff regimes are already clear,” Lien told a news conference. Firms across the supply chain are also lowering stock levels to mitigate
NEGOTIATIONS: Semiconductors play an outsized role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development and are a major driver of the Taiwan-US trade imbalance With US President Donald Trump threatening to impose tariffs on semiconductors, Taiwan is expected to face a significant challenge, as information and communications technology (ICT) products account for more than 70 percent of its exports to the US, Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said on Friday. Compared with other countries, semiconductors play a disproportionately large role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development, Lien said. As the sixth-largest contributor to the US trade deficit, Taiwan recorded a US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US last year — up from US$47.8 billion in 2023 — driven by strong
RESHAPING COMMERCE: Major industrialized economies accepted 15 percent duties on their products, while charges on items from Mexico, Canada and China are even bigger US President Donald Trump has unveiled a slew of new tariffs that boosted the average US rate on goods from across the world, forging ahead with his turbulent effort to reshape international commerce. The baseline rates for many trading partners remain unchanged at 10 percent from the duties Trump imposed in April, easing the worst fears of investors after the president had previously said they could double. Yet his move to raise tariffs on some Canadian goods to 35 percent threatens to inject fresh tensions into an already strained relationship, while nations such as Switzerland and New Zealand also saw increased
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