Local shares on Friday took a beating, with the bellwether electronics sector in focus, pushing down the benchmark index to a level close to the nearest technical support of about 11,100 points, dealers said.
Following losses sustained by the tech-heavy NASDAQ, investors rushed to dump large-cap electronics stocks, such as contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and iPhone assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), they said.
The TAIEX on Friday closed down 95.33 points, or 0.85 percent, at 11,156.42, after moving between 11,122.98 and 11,243.59, on turnover of NT$161.01 billion (US$5.4 billion).
Friday’s closing level was below the five-day moving average of about 11,160 points, but was a 1.9 percent increase from a close of 11,156.42 a week earlier.
The market opened down 8.16 points and stayed below the previous close as the electronics sector was in the doldrums in the wake of the falling NASDAQ, which fell 0.7 percent overnight, dealers said.
Selling became more pronounced in the afternoon session, pushing the TAIEX down by more than 100 points at one point, led by TSMC, Hon Hai and other tech stocks, before bargain hunters emerged in the late trading session to recoup some of the losses by the end of the day, they said.
“After yesterday’s gains when the local main board moved closer to the intraday high of 11,270 points [on Jan. 23], many investors turned cautious about an immediate possible major pullback,” KGI Securities Co (凱基證券) analyst Phil Chu (朱有志) said.
“In particular, after witnessing the NASDAQ weaken overnight, local investors scrambled to cut their holdings in large-cap electronics and retain as much cash as possible in a bid to avoid further possible losses down the road,” Chu said.
“I think foreign institutional investors stood on the sell side,” he added.
Foreign institutional investors on Friday sold a net NT$3.92 billion of shares on the main board, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
TSMC, the most heavily weighted stock on the local market, fell 1.30 percent to close at NT$227 with 23.52 million shares changing hands.
Led by TSMC, the bellwether electronics sector ended down 1.18 percent.
Among other falling tech heavyweights, Hon Hai, second to TSMC in terms of market value, shed 3.18 percent to close at NT$88.30, although its subsidiary Foxconn Industrial Internet Co Ltd (FII, 富士康工業互聯網) had a strong showing on the first day of its listing on the Shanghai Stock Exchange.
“It is possible for foreign investors to sell Hon Hai to buy FII today,” Chu said.
Also in the electronics sector, shares in Largan Precision Co (大立光), a smartphone camera lens supplier to Apple Inc, lost 2.15 percent to close at NT$4,545, while Pegatron Corp (和碩), another iPhone assembler, rose 0.15 percent to end at NT$67.90 on reports that it would secure orders to assemble new, larger LCD screen iPhones.
Selling spread to non-high-tech stocks, although the financial sector remained resilient, falling only 0.27 percent, Chu said.
Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控), one of the nation’s leading financial holding firms, ended unchanged at NT$55 after the company reported an almost 70 percent year-on-year increase in net profit for the first five months of this year.
In the old economy sector, shares in Nan Ya Plastics Corp (南亞塑膠) fell 1.61 percent to close at NT$108.50, Formosa Plastics Corp (台灣塑膠) lost 1.36 percent to end at NT$85.50 and food conglomerate Uni-President Enterprises Corp (統一企業) dropped 0.66 percent to close at NT$75.
“As the TAIEX fell below the five-day moving average today, it needs time to digest downward pressure and consolidate,” Chu said.
Elsewhere in Asia on Friday, markets retreated at the end of a broadly positive week, with traders turning their attention to a G7 summit on fears that world leaders would clash with US President Donald Trump over his latest tariff provocations.
While there remained concerns about a possible trade war and other geopolitical issues, equities have enjoyed a positive run since a strong US jobs report on Friday last week that fueled optimism in the global outlook.
The Nikkei 225 on Friday ended down 128.76 points, or 0.6 percent, at 22,694.50, with dealers unmoved by news confirming that Japan’s economy shrank for the first time in two years in the January-to-March period. That was a 2.4 percent increase from a close of 22,171.35 on June 1.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng on Friday sank 554.42 points, or 1.8 percent, to 30,958.21 after a six-day winning run, rising 1.5 percent from 30,492.91 a week earlier.
The Shanghai Composite on Friday slipped 42.35 points, or 1.4 percent, to 3,067.15, despite forecast-beating trade data. That was a drop of 0.3 percent from 3,075.14 on Friday last week.
Seoul’s KOSPI on Friday fell 19 points, or 0.8 percent, to 2,451.58, but rose 0.5 percent from a close of 2,438.96 a week earlier.
Sydney lost 0.2 percent and Singapore was down 1 percent, while Manila and Jakarta were sharply lower.
“Usually [a G7 summit is] a nonevent for markets, but with all the focus on escalating trade tensions amongst long-standing allies, there’s a good reason for investors to be chary, as this meeting is unlikely to follow an orderly arrangement of discussion,” Oanda Corp head of Asia-Pacific trade Stephen Innes said.
“Even more so as Canada and Mexico have retaliated against a range of US exports and the EU has promised to do so as well,” he added.
However, there was hope for China-US trade talks after they reached a deal allowing Chinese telecom equipment maker ZTE Corp (中興通訊) to pay a US$1.4 billion fine instead of being hit by a seven-year ban on selling to US firms.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six