Taiwan stocks fell 0.15 percent on Thursday from a six-year closing high, but UMC gathered steam on its plan to return cash. Taiwan's main TAIEX ended down 11.77 points at 7,923.77. United Microelectronics Corp (UMC), the market's most actively traded issue, jumped 3.1 percent after surging the daily 7 percent limit on Wednesday.
UMC's gains led the electronics sub-index up 0.24 percent, but the financial sector lost 0.77 percent after Chinatrust Financial announced a plan to sell a stake in rival Mega Financial. "UMC's news was a positive factor but we have to go back to corporate fundamentals again to check if the tech sector's recovery comes," said Chiang Chen-sheng, manager at Masterlink Investment Advisory.
"If the outlook is not as good as we had expected, we should start using market gains to sell stocks now," said Chiang, who did not rule out the TAIEX changing direction to test as low as 7,500 by the end of the first half, the seasonal slow season. Total turnover dipped to T$116.1 billion ($3.5 billion) from T$125.39 billion the previous session.
The world's top contract chip maker, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd (TSMC), posted an 18 percent fall in fourth-quarter earnings as the Taipei stock market closed. The stock ended up 0.71 percent. Investors have largely priced in a weaker fourth quarter. TSMC is set to give guidance for the first quarter later in the day and the focus will also be on whether TSMC will follow UMC's move to return cash to shareholders, analysts say.
Nanya Technology Corp fell 1.85 percent as investors priced in its record fourth-quarter earnings results. Larger local rival Powerchip Semiconductor Corp fell 1.16 percent. Shares of Chinatrust were down 0.66 percent, while Mega shares were down 1.91 percent.
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