The TAIEX plunged to its lowest level this year, as volume slumped to an eight-month low, after the stock exchange modified its trading system.
Investors remained sidelined as the Taiwan Stock Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控) led the decline.
"Everyone's holding off trading until they get used to the new system," said Aaron Wu, who manages about US$70 million in stocks at ABN Amro Asset Management Taiwan Ltd.
Starting yesterday, the closing price of a stock is calculated using accumulated orders over the last five minutes of trading, instead of using the last traded price of the stock.
The TAIEX dropped 184.39 points, or 3.6 percent, to 4969.32, its lowest since Dec. 5, as more than nine stocks fell for every one that rose.
Shares worth NT$35.4 billion (US$1.1 billion) changed hands, the lowest since Oct. 8.
Cathay Financial tumbled NT$3.40, or 6.9 percent, to NT$45.80 on concerns that costs may rise after reports that the government may require insurers to set aside a higher amount of funds to cover policy claims.
AU Optronics Corp (
EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空) fell NT$0.90, or 6.6 percent, to NT$12.70 after it was awarded fewer-than-expected flights in a new air-links accord between Hong Kong and Taiwan that was announced over the weekend.
High Tech Computer Corp (
The maker of hand-held computers scrapped a plan to raise NT$6 billion selling new shares overseas after its share price fell by more than half from its April peak.
Taiwan Hon Chuan Enterprise Co (
The maker of aluminum can caps forecast sales and profit will rise as much as half next year as demand from China surges.
Sanyang Industrial Co (三陽工業) fell NT$0.35, or 6.3 percent, to NT$5.25.
The carmaker forecast it will suffer NT$1.6 billion in lost sales as it converts production lines over the next two months to make cars for Hyundai Motor Co, following the end of an agreement to make cars for Honda Motor Co.
The exchange implemented a new set of trading regulations designed to make the TAIEX less volatile.
The new trading regulation will make it more difficult for speculators to impact share prices.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
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