Taiwan stocks fell 1.46 percent on Monday to a one-week closing low, with Hon Hai Precision and other exporters lower, as cautious comments from Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao about the world economy hurt investor sentiment. Wen said on Sunday that there was a chance the world economy may slip back into recession.
The comments sent other Asian markets lower, with the MSCI index of Asian shares outside Japan down 1 percent. Hong Kong shares fell 1 percent and Korean shares lost 0.8 percent. "Wen is worried for countries surrounding China," said Andrew Deng, assistant vice president of the international financial division at Taiwan International Securities Corp. "Investor interest is weak, and there's a cautious sentiment, which will continue." The main TAIEX ended down 113.41 points at 7,634.92. Foreign investors had bought T$59 billion worth of Taiwan shares this month as of Friday after being net sellers in February.
"A few factors that pushed Taiwan shares lower today: Chinese stocks's further fall and technical selling pressure growing at the 7,800 point level," said John Chiu, a vice president of Fuh Hwa Securities Investment Trust. He expected limited gains in the benchmark index in the short term unless Chinese stocks stage a significant rally.
The electronics sub-index fell 1.6 percent. Hon Hai, Taiwan's top electronics maker and a supplier to Dell Inc and Apple Inc, was 2.55 percent lower. Mediatek, the world's No 2 cellphone chip designer, slipped 1.5 percent. Topping the most active lists by turnover and volume was Amtran Technology, which fell 1 percent after advancing 7 percent in the previous session. After the market closed on Friday, Amtran denied media reports that Hon Hai would buy a 40 percent stake in it.
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