Taiwan shares drop more than 300 points in wake of Wall Street fall

Taipei, Sept. 24 (CNA) Shares in Taiwan plunged more than 300 points Thursday to end below the 12,300-point mark and the three-month moving average of 12,577, as market sentiment was hurt by a steep drop on Wall Street overnight.

The weighted index on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (Taiex) closed down 319.50 points, or 2.54 percent, at the day's low of 12,264.38. Turnover totaled NT$243.5 billion (US$8.32 billion).

Commenting on the drop, Minister of Finance Su Jain-rong (蘇建榮) said that with the daily trading volume on the main board and the over-the-counter market remaining at about NT$250 billion, there is still room for the Taiex to regain some momentum.

Meanwhile, the National Financial Stabilization Fund committee will hold a meeting on Oct. 12 to determine whether to continue to buy stocks to help prop up the market.

Among the falling tech heavyweights Thursday, contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), the most heavily weighted stock on the local market, dropped 2.42 percent to close at NT$423.00. It was the seventh consecutive session of decline for the stock since Sept. 16, when it hit a high of NT$462.00.

Meanwhile, integrated circuit designer MediaTek Inc. shed 2.76 percent to end at NT$600, and Largan Precision Co., a supplier of smartphone camera lenses to Apple Inc., fell 1.30 percent to end at NT$3,425.00.

The performance of the financial sector was also weak, with Yuanta Financial Holdings Co. losing 3.11 percent to end at NT$17.15 and China Development Financial Co. finishing 2.96 percent lower at NT$8.21.

Amid projections of a continued global spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus, some biotech shares bucked the downturn, with Abnova Holding Corp. gaining 9.91 percent to end at NT$83.20 and China Chemical & Pharmaceutical Co. surging 9.93 percent to finish at NT$75.30.

According to Taiex data, foreign institutional investors sold a net NT$43.677 billion worth of shares Thursday.

On Wednesday, U.S. stocks took a beating, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling 525 points, or 1.92 percent, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq plunging 3.02 percent.