Taiwanese share prices closed 1.05 percent lower yesterday amid growing concerns about the global financial crisis, despite the US Senate’s approval of a bailout package for the finance industry, dealers said.
The weighted index fell 60.29 points to 5,703.72 on turnover of NT$66.46 billion (US$2.08 billion).
Losers outnumbered gainers 912 to 672, with 401 shares unchanged.
The key electronics sector, an engine of Taiwan’s export industry, fell 1.84 percent amid concerns it might take a hard hit while consumers were reluctant to spend on electronic products in the difficult times, analysts said.
“Like its peers in the region, the local market also opened high but closed low. Investors cashed out in the early trade,” Chen Yu-yu (陳育榆) of Capital Securities (群益證券) said.
“Investors feared the US bailout package could not help its financial crisis ... the outlook for the global economy is dim over the long term,” he said.
Elsewhere in Asia, investors remained cautious with most major indexes falling, as traders decided to await the outcome of another vote in the House of Representatives expected on Friday.
The House’s rejection of the original US$700 billion plan on Monday sent world stock markets into a tailspin, a week after they had plummeted following the collapse of Lehman Brothers.
Tokyo shed 1.88 percent to end at a three-year low, while Sydney eased by 0.7 percent and Seoul slipped 1.39 percent.
But Hong Kong recorded a rise of more than 1 percent, while Singapore was also better off, lifting 0.2 percent.
Many markets were closed because of public holidays.
“People are just hanging on the US decision,” said James Foulsham, CMC Markets head of trading in Australia.
“We saw some news on that this morning, but until we get a firmer view one way or the other, I think people are going to stay out of the market because it’s too risky,” he said.
However, in Japan the Nikkei ended at its lowest level since May 2005, with traders also jittery about the prospects for the rest of the economy.
Exporters were hammered, dragging the index, as the US dollar slipped, making it more expensive to buy Japanese goods.
But Hong Kong was up due to a strong rally in Ping An Insurance (平安保險), which ended a plan to buy half the asset management arm of troubled European bank Fortis, dealers said.
In other markets Wellington rose 1.4 percent and Manila gained 1.68 percent.
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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
Six Taiwanese companies, including contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), made the 2025 Fortune Global 500 list of the world’s largest firms by revenue. In a report published by New York-based Fortune magazine on Tuesday, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), ranked highest among Taiwanese firms, placing 28th with revenue of US$213.69 billion. Up 60 spots from last year, TSMC rose to No. 126 with US$90.16 billion in revenue, followed by Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) at 348th, Pegatron Corp (和碩) at 461st, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) at 494th and Wistron Corp (緯創) at
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
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