Taiex briefly dips below 20,000 point mark amid heavy tech losses

Taipei, Aug. 5 (CNA) Shares in Taiwan came under heavy pressure led by the bellwether electronics sector on Monday morning, pushing down the benchmark Taiex below the 20,000 point mark at one point.

Selling was triggered by a plunge among U.S. tech stocks at the end of last week, dealers said.

The Taiex, the weighted index on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE), lost 1,711 points in Monday's mid-morning session to record the session's low of 19,926.66 before recovering to some extent to 20,161.60 -- down 1,476.49 points, or 6.82 percent -- at 11:20 a.m.

The local main board opened sharply down by 655.17 points or 3.02 percent. Large semiconductor stocks led the downturn in the wake of a 5.18 percent plunge on the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index in the United States on Friday.

Sell-offs continued with the Taiex tumbling 1,711 points at one point -- the steepest intraday decline in its history -- amid concerns over further volatility in U.S. markets.

Washington had reported disappointing job data for June, which raised concerns over a possible hard landing for the world's largest economy, dealers said.

In addition, fears over the escalating conflict in the Middle East also prompted investors to dump their stocks.

As of 11:20 a.m., contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), the most heavily weighted stock in the local market, had lost 7.09 percent to arrive at NT$839.00.

TSMC's losses contributed about 520 points to the Taiex's decline and lowered the electronics index and semiconductor sub-index by 7.26 percent and 6.01 percent, respectively.

Among other semiconductor heavyweights, integrated circuits (IC) packaging and testing services provider ASE Technology Holding Co. shed 7.80 percent to NT$1,005.00, and the smartphone IC designer MediaTek Inc. lost 7.67 percent to NT$132.50.

Tech website The Information said U.S. artificial intelligence chip designer Nvidia Corp. told customers that the rollout of its Blackwell graphics processing units will be delayed by three months or more due to unexpected design flaws.

Dealers said the reports also prompted investors to cut holdings to AI-related stocks with AI server maker Quanta Computer Inc. down 8.27 percent to NT$244.00 and Wistron Corp. down 8.46 percent to NT$119.00 as of 11:20 a.m.

iPhone assembler Hon Hai Precision Co., second only to TSMC in terms of market value, had shed 10 percent, the maximum daily decline, to NT$160.00. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn on global markets, also produces AI servers.