Taiwan stocks at five-month low

Taiwan stocks ended lower on Tuesday in the biggest single-day percentage fall in 13 months after panic selling followed a fresh explosion at a damaged nuclear power plant in Japan's north-east. Fund managers said the main share index would likely break below the 8,000 level as disruptions in the tech food chain were exacerbated. However, they expected to see a short bounce following the declines of the previous two sessions.
The TAIEX index finished down 3.35 percent at 8,234.78, a near five-month closing low, after dropping as much as 5.3 percent in earlier trading. Daily turnover reached T$188 billion ($6.38 billion). Foreign investors were the net sellers for the fifth consecutive session, offloading T$11.54 billion.