Taiwan shares tumble, dragged down by TSMC

Taipei, Sept. 30 (CNA) Shares in Taiwan plunged on Monday, driven by steep declines in the share price of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) and other tech heavyweights.

The Taiex, the weighted index on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE), dropped 598.25 points, or 2.62 percent, to end at the day's low of 22,224.54. Turnover totaled NT$390.84 billion (US$12.34 billion).

With its losses Monday, the market shed a cumulative 44.53 points during September and 807.71 points in the year's third quarter.

Among individual stocks, TSMC lost 43 points, or 4.3 percent, to close at NT$957, pushing its market capitalization below NT$25 trillion.

The contract chipmaker -- which with a 35-percent weighting is by far the heaviest-weighted stock on the Taiex, ahead of the distant No. 2 Hon Hai Precision Industry Co.'s 3 percent -- accounted for 349 points of the index's losses.

Aside from TSMC, Hon Hai lost 1.83 percent to close at NT$187.5, smartphone IC designer MediaTek Inc. plunged 6.75 percent to NT$1,175, and Largan Precision Co., a smartphone camera lens manufacturer, dropped 2.68 percent to close at 2,540.

By industry, the electronics sector fell 3.47 percent, shipping stocks dropped 3.75 percent, while the electric machinery industry and the cable and wire industry lost 2.15 percent and 1.48 percent, respectively.

Alex Huang (黃國偉), an analyst at Mega International Investment Services Corp., said the market's losses Monday were driven by investors moving money from tech stocks into non-tech stocks.

Given its prominence, TSMC will likely serve as an important indicator as to whether the Taiex can staunch its losses over the next few days, Huang said.