Taiwan shares end down ahead of TSMC investor conference

Taipei, Jan. 15 (CNA) Shares in Taiwan closed lower Thursday amid cautious sentiment over an investor conference scheduled to be held by contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) after the market closes, dealers said.

The Taiex, the Taiwan Stock Exchange's (TWSE) benchmark index, ended down 131.20 points, or 0.42 percent, at 30,810.58 after moving between 30,663.87 and 30,877.31. Turnover totaled NT$648.07 billion (US$20.5 billion).

"While investors remained upbeat about TSMC's fundamentals, many of them took a pause, waiting for the real numbers the company will give at the investor conference," MasterLink Securities analyst Tom Tang said.

After the market closed, TSMC reported its net profit for 2025 hit a new high of NT$1.72 trillion.

"I prefer to say investors simply wanted to pocket the profits they have built in recent sessions with TSMC as the top target," Tang added. In the previous three sessions, the Taiex rose 2.16 percent.

TSMC, which accounts for over 40 percent of total market value, fell 1.17 percent to close at NT$1,690.00, pushing down the electronics index and semiconductor subindex by 0.88 percent and 0.97 percent, respectively.

Smartphone IC designer MediaTek Inc. lost 0.67 percent to end at NT$1,490.00, while TSMC's ASIC design subsidiary Global Unichip Corp, rose 3.51 percent to close at NT$2,505.00 and memory chip supplier Nanya Technology Corp. was boosted by a product price hike to end up 0.42 percent at NT$237.50.

Also in the tech sector, AI server maker and iPhone assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., second to TSMC in market value, lost 0.43 percent to close at NT$233.50, and power management solution provider Delta Electronics Inc. shed 1.42 percent to end at NT$1,045.00.

"With the electronics sector in weakness, rotational buying turned active as investors parked their funds in select major raw material stocks to give support to the Taiex," Tang said.

Shares in Formosa Plastics Corp. rose 3.78 percent to close at NT$42.60, and Nan Ya Plastics Corp., the parent of Nanya Technology, soared 10 percent, the maximum daily increase, to end at NT$69.70.

In addition, Eclat Textile Co. rose 1.84 percent to close at NT$414.50 and Makalot Industrial Co. ended up 3.52 percent at NT$338.50.

In the financial sector, which added 0.89 percent, CTBC Financial Holding Co. rose 2.23 percent to close at NT$50.40, and Cathay Financial Holding Co. ended up 0.67 percent at NT$75.20.

"Today's retreat was just technical in nature. My expectation of an uptrend moving toward 31,000 points remains unchanged," Tang said.

According to the TWSE, foreign institutional investors sold NT$229 million worth of shares on the main board Thursday.