Taiwanese shares took a beating yesterday as the benchmark TAIEX fell to its lowest point in almost one year, as market worries remained over planned rate hikes by the US Federal Reserve, dealers said.
The bellwether electronics sector continued its downtrend, led by large-cap semiconductor stocks, while the financial sector saw a sell-off as investors rushed to downsize their portfolios amid market volatility, they said.
The TAIEX at its close was down 359.28 points, or 2.19 percent, at the day’s low of 16,048.92. Turnover totaled NT$239.82 billion (US$8.07 billion), with foreign institutional investors selling a net NT$21.15 billion of shares on the main board, Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) data showed.
Photo by Sam Yeh / AFP
Yesterday’s closing level was the lowest since May 20 last year, when the TAIEX ended at 16,042.36, TWSE data showed.
“While US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has ruled out an increase of 75 basis points in each of the upcoming policymaking meetings, the rate hike cycle has been put in place, and many investors at home and abroad are increasingly worried about liquidity being drained from the market,” MasterLink Securities Corp (元富證券) analyst Tom Tang (湯忠謙) said.
The Fed raised its key interest rate by 50 basis points in a meeting held last week after a 25 basis point increase in March in an attempt to tackle inflation.
“In Taipei, investors stayed jittery about the US markets’ performance, so they simply scrambled to further unload their holdings. Today, massive selling was seen among financial stocks, having spread from their tech counterparts,” Tang said.
The financial sector closed down by 3.4 percent, and the electronics sector fell by 1.72 percent overall, with the semiconductor subindex declining by 1.78 percent, and the transportation sector, which includes major shipping and airline stocks, declined 3.53 percent, TWSE data showed.
“Today’s turnover remained low, as many investors were reluctant to buy during the dips since they fear more losses down the road,” Tang said. “The market also remains alert to the impact on the economy from COVID-19 lockdowns in China.”
ENERGY ISSUES: The TSIA urged the government to increase natural gas and helium reserves to reduce the impact of the Middle East war on semiconductor supply stability Chip testing and packaging service provider ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控) yesterday said it planned to invest more than NT$100 billion (US$3.15 billion) in building a new advanced chip testing facility in Kaohsiung to keep up with customer demand driven by the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. That would be included in the company’s capital expenditure budget next year, ASE said. There is also room to raise this year’s capital spending budget from a record-high US$7 billion estimated three months ago, it added. ASE would have six factories under construction this year, another record-breaking number, ASE chief operating officer Tien Wu
The EU and US are nearing an agreement to coordinate on producing and securing critical minerals, part of a push to break reliance on Chinese supplies. The potential deal would create incentives, such as minimum prices, that could advantage non-Chinese suppliers, according to a draft of an “action plan” seen by Bloomberg. The EU and US would also cooperate on standards, investments and joint projects, as well as coordinate on any supply disruptions by countries like China. The two sides are additionally seeking other “like-minded partners” to join a multicountry accord to help create these new critical mineral supply chains, which feed into
For weeks now, the global tech industry has been waiting for a major artificial intelligence (AI) launch from DeepSeek (深度求索), seen as a benchmark for China’s progress in the fast-moving field. More than a year has passed since the start-up put Chinese AI on the map in early last year with a low-cost chatbot that performed at a similar level to US rivals. However, despite reports and rumors about its imminent release, DeepSeek’s next-generation “V4” model is nowhere in sight. Speculation is also swirling over the geopolitical implications of which computer chips were chosen to train and power the new
Intel Corp is joining Elon Musk’s long-shot effort to develop semiconductors for Tesla Inc, Space Exploration Technologies Corp and xAI, marking a surprising twist in the chipmaker’s comeback bid. Intel would help the Terafab project “refactor” the technology in a chip factory, the company said on Tuesday in a post on X, Musk’s social media platform. That is a stage in the development process that typically helps make chips more powerful or reliable. The chipmaker’s shares jumped 4.2 percent to US$52.91 in New York trading on Tuesday. The Terafab project is a grand plan by Musk to eventually manufacture his own chips for
RSS