The TAIEX slid again yesterday, declining more than 20 percent from a January high and entering a bear market.
The weighted index closed 3.26 percent lower in Taipei at 14,343.08 points. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which accounts for more than one-quarter of the index’s weighting, declined 4.73 percent to close at NT$453.5 amid broad weakness in the chip sector following Micron Technology Inc’s disappointing forecasts.
Tech-heavy equity markets in Taiwan and South Korea were among the worst performers in Asia last quarter, both down more than 15 percent amid rate hikes by global central banks. Foreign investors net sold more than US$16 billion of Taiwanese stocks during the three-month period, the most among emerging Asian markets outside of China.
Photo: CNA
“Taiwan stocks declined due to several negatives, including global inflation concerns, growth slowdown fears and rate hikes, which lead to global funds returning to the US from emerging markets,” President Capital Management (統一投顧) chairman Li Fang-kuo (黎方國) said. “The downward trend of Taiwan stocks will continue, so investors should avoid catching the falling knife.”
The TAIEX dropped 6.3 percent this week, the biggest weekly decline in 13 months.
Investor sentiment soured on tech stocks worldwide due to fears of a global recession and a cautious outlook for the semiconductor sector.
The Taiwan Stock Exchange said in a statement on Thursday it would adopt stabilizing measures if needed when there are “irrational” declines in the stock market.
Separately, Deputy Minister of Finance Frank Juan (阮清華), executive secretary of the National Financial Stabilization Fund, said the fund would continue to monitor the stock market to determine if it needs to step in.
SinoPac Securities Investment Service Corp (永豐投顧) said in a note that if the administration of US President Joe Biden cancels tariffs on Chinese goods, some of which are due to expire on Wednesday next week, it would boost markets.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, has decided to slow down its 3-nanometer chip production as Intel Corp, one of its major customers, plans to push back the launch of its new Meteor Lake tGPU chipsets to the end of next year, market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. That means Intel has canceled almost all of the 3-nanometer capacity booked for next year, with only a small amount of wafer input remaining for engineering verification, the Taipei-based researcher said in a report. Based on Intel’s original schedule, TSMC was to start producing the new chipsets in
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