Taiwan shares end up, gains capped ahead of 23,500 points

Taipei, July 24 (CNA) Shares in Taiwan closed higher Thursday, but gains were limited by strong technical resistance near the 23,500-point mark and renewed concerns over U.S. tariff policies, dealers said.

The Taiex, the weighted index on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE), ended up 55.06 points, or 0.24 percent, at 23,373.73 after moving between 23,295.31 and 23,455.09. Turnover totaled NT$340.72 billion (US$11.63 billion).

Building on the previous session's momentum, the market opened 0.23 percent higher, with buying pushing the Taiex up 136 points to the day's high in early trading. However, as the index approached the 23,500-point mark, some investors turned to profit-taking, causing the main board to retreat from its intraday high.

"Judging from today's movement, the technical barrier near 23,500 points remains strong and difficult to break through for now, especially with only moderate turnover," said Kevin Su, an analyst at Hua Nan Securities.

"The silver lining was that AI-related stocks continued to attract buying, after Google's better-than-expected earnings overnight highlighted strong momentum in the sector," Su said.

Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., an iPhone assembler and AI server maker, rose 4.82 percent to close at the day's high of NT$174.00, while fellow AI server supplier Quanta Computer Inc. gained 1.70 percent to finish at NT$269.00.

In addition, cloud services provider Wiwynn Corp. rose 2.66 percent to close at NT$2,510.00, while Asia Vital Components Co., which supplies cooling solutions for AI applications, gained 1.42 percent to end at the same price.

Also in the tech sector, contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), the most heavily weighted stock on the market, closed unchanged at the day's low of NT$1,145.00., but application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) designer AIchip Technologies Inc. gained 3.92 percent to end at NT$3,975.00.

"In addition to technical resistance facing the index, investors seemed hesitant to chase prices as they await clarity on how Taiwan will negotiate a tariff deal with the United States," Su said. "If Taiwan faces a tariff rate higher than Japan's 15 percent, exporters in traditional industries could take a hit."

As a result, old economy stocks largely underperformed their tech counterparts, Su said.

In the machinery industry, which competes directly with Japan in the global market, Tongtai Machine & Tool Co. fell 1.30 percent to close at NT$30.45, while Hiwin Technologies Co. slipped 0.23 percent to finish at NT$217.00.

Elsewhere in the old economy sector, Chung Hung Steel Corp. dropped 2.49 percent to close at NT$15.65, while Tung Ho Steel Corp. slipped 0.61 percent to finish at NT$65.60.

The financial sector lost 0.56 percent, with E. Sun Financial Holding Co. falling 0.61 percent to close at NT$32.85, Fubon Financial Holding Co. slipping 0.24 percent to finish at NT$83.60, and Cathay Financial Holding Co. edging down 0.16 percent to NT$62.60.

"More major U.S. tech stocks are scheduled to report earnings next week, which will be worth watching for clues about global demand amid ongoing tariff concerns," Su said, referring to companies including Microsoft Corp. and Apple Inc.

According to the TWSE, foreign institutional investors bought a net NT$10.15 billion worth of shares on the main board Thursday.