The TAIEX yesterday closed below 9,500 points for the first time since February last year amid continued concerns over trade friction between the US and China, dealers said.
Market sentiment remained cautious after a sell-off by foreign institutional investors, which has heightened concerns of further fund outflows, they said.
Other Asian markets also fell as trade tensions and geopolitical worries kept investors from tracking a rebound on Wall Street, with observers warning of further volatility to come.
The losses came at the end of a punishing week that witnessed steep losses across the board, with several indices wiping out their annual gains as the technology and energy sectors took a beating.
The TAIEX closed down 31.61 points, or 0.33 percent, at 9,489.18 on turnover of NT$128.06 billion (US$4.13 billion).
Elsewhere in Asia, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 1.1 percent, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 closed 0.4 percent lower and Shanghai’s SSE fell 0.2 percent.
Singapore’s Straits Times Index dove 1.4 percent, Seoul’s KOSPI shed 1.8 percent and Bangkok’s SET fell 0.5 percent.
However, Wellington’s NZX 50 was marginally higher and Manila’s PSEi added more than 1 percent.
In Taipei, some bargain-hunters emerged late in the session to pick up large-cap stocks, in particular Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), helping the TAIEX recoup some of its losses by the end of the session.
“It was a volatile session as investors remained bothered by unfavorable external factors such as the Washington-Beijing trade tensions,” Hua Nan Securities Co (華南永昌證券) analyst Kevin Su (蘇俊宏) said. “So when the index bounced back in the morning, many investors tended to lock in profits.”
TSMC, the most heavily weighted stock on the local market, gained 0.68 percent to close at NT$221.
Largan Precision Co (大立光) fell 2.43 percent to NT$3,210 and integrated circuit designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) shed 3.81 percent to close at NT$202.
Shares of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海), the world’s largest contract electronics maker, tumbled 7.75 percent to close at NT$76.2 after trading resumed yesterday following a week-long suspension due to a capital reduction.
“Today’s selling of Hon Hai shares simply followed the downturn of the market and other market heavyweights in previous sessions,” MasterLink Securities Corp (元富證券) analyst Tom Tang (湯忠謙) said.
The stock has become technically fragile after yesterday’s plunge and there are no signs of Hon Hai shares finding strong technical support unless foreign institutional investors resume buying, Tang said.
Foreign institutional investors sold a net NT$2.35 billion of local shares yesterday after an aggregate net sell of NT$150.85 billion from Oct. 1 to Thursday, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
Additional reporting by AFP
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