The TAIEX fell by more than 1 percent yesterday amid selling sparked by heavy losses on Wall Street on Friday over renewed fears of more aggressive rate hikes by the US Federal Reserve.
While the bellwether electronics sector served as a driver of the losses throughout the session, government-led funds are believed to have stepped in, picking up large-cap non-tech stocks in the petrochemical and financial sectors to limit losses, while some bargain hunters also emerged to cap the downturn by the end of the session, as the TAIEX fell closer to 12,800 points.
The TAIEX closed down 162.07 points, or 1.23 percent, at 12,966.05. Turnover on the main board totaled NT$206.731 billion (US$6.46 billion), with foreign institutional investors selling NT$8.76 billion of shares, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
Photo: CNA
The electronics sector fell 1.62 percent, with the semiconductor sub-index down 2.73 percent after contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) shed 3.64 percent to close at NT$397 after its American depositary receipts shed 4.05 percent on US markets on Friday.
TSMC’s losses contributed about 120 points to the TAIEX’s decline yesterday.
“With interest rates on the rise, making tech stocks at home and abroad less attractive, local investors continued to punish liquid semiconductor heavyweights with TSMC in focus,” Moore Securities Investment Consulting Co (摩爾投顧) analyst Adam Lin (林漢偉) said.
“The bright side was that some of the losses were recovered when buying emerged to boost select non-tech stocks, in particular in the petrochemical and financial sectors, offsetting the losses suffered by the electronics sector,” Lin said. “I suspect the buying came from government-led funds, as the government simply did not want to see a further plunge amid US volatility.”
Bolstered by bargain hunters and buying from government funds, the petrochemical sector rose 0.62 percent and the financial sector edged up 0.80 percent.
However, the transportation sector fell 4.04 percent amid lingering concerns over a decline in freight rates and weak global demand.
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