Taiex posts 3rd steepest point drop ever as tech stocks hammered

Taipei, June 26 (CNA) Shares in Taiwan suffered their third steepest point fall in history on Friday, dragged down by the bellwether electronics sector after heavy losses among tech stocks on markets in the United States overnight, dealers said.

The Taiex, the Taiwan Stock Exchange's benchmark index, ended down 1,683.50 points, or 3.64 percent, at 44,571.76 after moving between 44,454.22 and 46,188.60. Turnover totaled NT$1.55 trillion (US$48.21 billion).

Friday's point loss was the third highest after falls of 2,065.87 points on April 7, 2025 and 1,807.21 points on Aug. 5, 2024.

"Investors punished U.S. tech stocks after Apple and Microsoft raised the prices of some of their products due to a spike in memory chip and storage device prices, fearing the price hikes would hurt end-user demand," Concord Securities analyst Kerry Huang said.

Apple and Microsoft shares slid 6.15 percent and 3.45 percent, respectively, overnight.

"Taiwan has many suppliers in the global ICT industry, so the sell-off in Taiwan emerged soon after the market opened today and continued to the end of the session," Huang said.

The electronics index fell 3.91 percent, with contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., which accounts for over 40 percent of the market's total value, losing 2.09 percent to close at NT$2,340.00.

Its decline contributed about 400 points to the Taiex's fall.

United Microelectronics Corp., a smaller contract chipmaker, shed 8.12 percent to end at NT$164.00 as investors pocketed the gains built in the past few sessions on a reported partnership with Intel Corp. on 3 nanometer development.

After rival Broadcom joined with OpenAI in unveiling their debut custom chip to increase competition in the application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) market, smartphone IC designer MediaTek Inc. plunged 10 percent, the maximum daily decline, to close at NT$3,880.00.

Another ASIC designer, Aichip Technologies Inc., shed 8.51 percent to end at NT$3,879.00.

Delta Electronics Inc., a power management solution provider, shed 8.59 percent to close at NT$1,810.00, and Yageo Corp., the world's third largest multi-layer ceramic capacitor (MLCC), dipped 10 percent to end at NT$1,015.00.

"With electronics component prices on the rise, major cloud service providers' investments could be affected, which would also hurt Taiwan's suppliers," Huang said.

Huang said Friday's selling was seen across other industries, with Formosa Plastics Corp. falling 10 percent to close at NT$52.20 and Formosa Chemicals & Fibre Corp. dropping 8.91 percent to end at NT$54.20 in the old economy sector.

Shihlin Electric & Engineering Corp. slid 4.11 percent to close at NT$233.50, and Fortune Electric Co. ended down 3.47 percent at NT$30.50.

In the financial sector, which lost 1.70 percent, Cathay Financial Holding Co. fell 4.93 percent to end at NT$106.00, and Fubon Financial Holding Co. dropped 1.47 percent to close at NT$134.00.

"After the Taiex fell below the 20-day moving average 45,342, the index has turned technically weaker," Huang said. "Investors should be cautious about more volatility ahead."

According to the Taiwan Stock Exchange, foreign institutional investors sold a net NT$143.19 billion in shares on the market Friday.