Local shares yesterday came under pressure, ending the day below 10,800 points as investors rushed to dump their holdings in the wake of an announcement by Washington that it would impose tariffs on US$200 billion of Chinese goods from Monday next week.
The bellwether electronics sector drove the broader market lower, as selling focused on major Taiwanese suppliers to Apple Inc amid fears that trade friction between Washington and Beijing would escalate and further affect Taiwanese suppliers to US brands should China retaliate, dealers said.
However, old economy and financial stocks were more resilient, helping the local main board fend off downward pressure faced by tech firms throughout the session, they said.
The TAIEX closed down 68.40 points, or 0.63 percent, at 10,760.21 on turnover of NT$116.96 billion (US$3.8 billion), Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) data showed.
Elsewhere in Asia, most markets rose on hopes that officials from the world’s top two economies would be able to work out an agreement before the end of this year.
The optimism has been boosted by US President Donald Trump leaving off some key items from the latest target list.
Trump is also scheduled to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in November and would likely want a deal in place by then.
By the end of the day, Shanghai had rallied 1.8 percent and Tokyo was up 1.4 percent, while Hong Kong gained 0.6 percent.
Seoul gained 0.3 percent and Wellington added 0.5 percent.
However, Sydney dipped 0.4 percent and Singapore fell 0.1 percent.
In Taiwan, Apple suppliers became the largest victims of the trade tensions due to the intertwined business ties between the three economies, with smartphone camera lens supplier Largan Precision Co (大立光) shedding 10 percent to close at NT$3,860 and contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) losing 1.36 percent to close at NT$254.5.
Major iPhone assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) fell 2.57 percent to end at NT$75.8.
Led by these major suppliers to Apple, the electronics sector closed down 1.57 percent, TWSE data showed.
Despite the fall in the TAIEX, foreign institutional investors bought a net NT$1.76 billion of shares on the main board, the TWSE said.
On the currency market, the New Taiwan dollar fell against the US dollar, declining 0.03 percent to close at NT$30.813.
However, other regional currencies saw an afternoon recovery after having been in the red earlier. The yuan was flat, while the South Korean won and the Australian dollar were 0.3 percent higher.
The Mexican peso gained 0.2 percent, the Russian ruble edged 0.3 percent higher and South Africa’s rand put on 0.4 percent.
However, Indonesia’s rupiah fell 0.2 percent as it wallows at about levels last seen in 1998 during the Asian financial crisis.
Additional reporting by AFP
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
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”