Taiwan shares under heavy pressure amid growing tariff concerns

Taipei, July 22 (CNA) Shares in Taiwan came under heavy pressure, down over 1.5 percent Tuesday with the bellwether electronics sector in focus as concerns over U.S. tariff threats ran deeper, dealers said.

The Taiex, the weighted index on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE), ended down 352.64 points, or 1.51 percent, at 22,987.92, after moving between 22,985.90 and 23,486.08. Turnover totaled NT$435.32 billion (US$14.81 billion).

The market opened down 0.17 percent and fluctuated in a narrow range during most of the morning session before selling escalated, in particular, in the afternoon session, sending large-cap tech stocks lower, in particular, contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), dealers said.

"Judging from today's movement, I think many investors turned downbeat about the ongoing tariff talks with the United States as the negotiations have not yielded a conclusion yet," Mega International Investment Services analyst Alex Huang said.

While the government repeatedly said the negotiations were still underway, investors simply lost faith, fearing both sides cannot resolve their sticky differences and Taiwan will face an unacceptable high levy, Huang said.

He was referring to recent market speculation that a 32 percent reciprocal tariff is possible for Taiwan, higher than 25 percent faced by Japan and South Korea.

"So tech heavyweights such as TSMC saw heavy pressure to boost the daily turnover to more than NT$400 billion," Huang said. On Monday, turnover hit only NT$316.35 billion.

TSMC, the most heavily weighted stock here, lost 1.75 percent to close at the day's low of NT$1,130.00. The stock's losses contributed about 160 points to the Taiex's decline.

"After Thursday, when TSMC delivered positive leads in its investor conference, it is unlikely for the chipmaker to come up with further good news anytime soon," Huang said. "Investors simply locked in their recent gains amid tariff uncertainties."

Among other semiconductor stocks, TSMC's IC assembly equipment supplier Scientech Corp. fell 3.98 percent to end at NT$338.00, and memory chip producer Nanya Technology Corp. dropped 3.34 percent to close at NT$40.55.

Smartphone IC designer MediaTek Inc., however, ended up 0.35 percent at NT$1,430.00.

Also in the tech sector, iPhone assembler and AI server maker Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. dropped 1.82 percent to close at NT$162.00, and AI graphics card vendor Giga-Byte Technology Co. shed 3.61 percent to end at NT$280.00.

"The tariff issues also cost old economy industries dearly today, when machinery makers took a beating," Huang said.

Among them, Hiwin Technologies Co. lost 2.79 percent to close at NT$209.00, and Tongtai Machine & Tool Co. shed 2.61 percent to end at NT$29.90.

Bucking the downturn, China Steel Corp., the largest steel maker in Taiwan, rose 0.20 percent to close at NT$19.25 and Chung Hung Steel Corp. gained 1.04 percent to end at NT$14.60.

The financial sector appeared resilient, down only 0.36 percent. Fubon Financial Holding Co. lost 0.72 percent to close at NT$82.50, while E. Sun Financial Holding Co. added 1.68 percent to end at NT$33.20.

Despite the fall in Taiex, foreign institutional investors bought a net NT$10.02 billion worth of shares on the main board Tuesday, according to the TWSE.