Taipei, April 2 (CNA) Shares in Taiwan closed slightly higher Wednesday as investors appeared reluctant to chase prices amid lingering concerns over the fresh round of tariffs expected to be announced by the Trump administration later in the day, dealers said.
The Taiex, the Taiwan Stock Exchange’s weighted index, ended up 18.05 points, or 0.08 percent, at 21,298.22 after moving between 21,235.99 and 21,390.52. Turnover totaled NT$232.85 billion (US$7.01 billion).
“Trade was light today as many investors stayed on the sidelines waiting for the White House’s announcement,” MasterLink Securities analyst Tom Tang said. “Investors just do not like such uncertainties.”
“Some investors even capitalized on the initial gains with TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.) in focus,” Tang said. “The stock has recently faced headwinds largely due to tariff scares rather than anything to do with its fundamentals.”
TSMC, the most heavily weighted stock in Taiwan, fell 0.21 precent to close at NT$942.00 after coming off a high of NT$952.00. TSMC’s fall from the day’s high cost the Taiex about 80 points, its losses contributed to respective 0.05 percent and 0.27 percent falls in the electronics index and semiconductor sub-index.
Tariff fears also led to the selling of other semiconductor stocks. Smartphone IC designer MediaTek Inc. slid 1.71 percent to end at NT$1,435.00, and IC packaging and testing services provider ASE Technology Holding Co. fell 0.33 percent at NT$149.00.
Bucking the downturn, TSMC’s application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) design subsidiary Global Unichip Corp. rose 2.30 percent to end at NT$1,110.00.
Despite the weakness in semiconductors, Tang said, artificial intelligence related stocks and other electronics component suppliers attracted rotational buying.
Among them, iPhone assembler and AI server maker Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., second to TSMC in terms of market value, added 0.99 percent to close at NT$153.50, and AI graphics card vendor Giga-Byte Technology Co. ended up 0.20 percent at NT$247.00.
In addition, printed circuit board maker Compeq Manufacturing Co. rose 1.85 percent to close at NT$60.50, and multi-layer ceramic capacitor supplier Yageo Corp. soared 7.06 percent to end at NT$523.00.
Buying also rotated to select old economy stocks, providing some support to the Taiex, Tang said.
Riding the wave of a hike in international pulp prices, Shihlin Paper Corp. rose 5.16 percent to close at NT$52.00, and Longchen Paper & Packaging Co. gained 4.41 percent to end at NT$10.65.
Meanwhile, Shihlin Electric & Engineering Corp. rose 3.33 percent to close at NT$155.00, and Chung-Hsin Electric & Machinery Manufacturing Corp. added 2.26 percent to end at NT$135.50.
Helped by their high cash dividend payouts, financial sector shares rose 0.41 percent, with Yuanta Financial Holding Co. up 1.03 percent to close at NT$34.40, and Fubon Financial Holding Co. up 0.23 percent to end at NT$87.60.
“The U.S. nonfarm payroll data for March coming out Friday is worth watching for a clearer picture of the economy and more clues about the Federal Reserve’s next move,” Tang said.
According to the Taiwan Stock Exchange, foreign institutional investors continued to be net sellers of shares, with a net sell of NT$1.05 billion in shares Wednesday after Tuesday’s net sell of NT$4.39 billion.
