Taiwan stocks plunge

Taiwan stocks ended down 0.64 percent on Thursday as technology shares tracked US markets lower and reversed a week-long rally, while banking stocks tumbled on disappointment over stalled financial reforms.
The TAIEX share index lost 39.20 points to close at 6,095.81, giving back some of the last week's sharp advance after treading water for the past three sessions.
AU Optronics Corp, the world's third largest display screen maker, fell 1.76 percent to T$41.85, surrendering some of the last session's 2.77 percent rise after the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index lost 1.70 percent on Wednesday.
"With US stocks continuing to fall, there really is not much possibility that Taiwan can keep ignoring the situation," said Alvin Teng, assistant research manager at SinoPac Securities.
Teng also said there was little hope in the market the government could meet its target of halving the number of state-controlled banks to six by the end of this year, after its previous attempt to auction off a bank failed last month.
"It is already October 6 and the deadline is the end of this year - that is less than three months," Teng said. "If they plan to have state-owned banks merge with each other to meet the deadline, then it would be meaningless".
Turnover eased to T$77.49 billion from the last session's T$95.81 billion as investors stepped back to see if US markets would remain weak.
Banks with heavy foreign ownership were among the heaviest decliners, indicating that overseas investors were unloading their positions.
Chinatrust Financial Holding Co was the second most actively traded issue and lost T$0.95, or 3.51 percent, to T$26.10, while Taishin Financial Holding Co fell 1.85 percent to T$18.60.
Top computer motherboard maker Asustek Computer Inc bucked the market's bearish tone, adding 2.51 percent after announcing it would acquire Askey Computer Co, exchanging one of its own shares for seven of Askey's.
Askey, a top manufacturer of ADSL modems, jumped the seven percent daily trading limit to T$13.45.
The over-the-counter market's TAISDAQ index fell 0.69 percent to 118.73, while October TAIEX index futures lost 30 points or 0.49 percent, to 6,100.