Taiwan stocks fell 2.35 percent to a three-week closing low on Tuesday, as lingering concerns over slower demand hurt tech shares like TSMC, coupled with a top official warning that the government's goal of keeping inflation at 3.5 percent or less this year would be hard to meet.
Hurt by losses on Wall Street, the main TAIEX share index closed down 163.96 points at 6,813.40, hovering at its lowest level since July 16. Shares worth T$99.5 billion ($3.24 billion) changed hands, rising from T$60.7 billion a session ago.
On Monday, a vice economics minister said Taiwan will find it tough to realise Premier Liu Chao-shiuan's hope of keeping inflation below 3.5 percent as global energy costs hover near record highs. "Investor confidence is weak now, after the market dipped below 7,000 points again this week," said Karen Lin, a fund manager of Paradigm Asset Management Co Ltd.
"The US Federal Reserve's measure on interest rate tonight and Taiwan companies' quarterly results in the following weeks will be the keys to watch for market sentiment." Lin saw limited downside risk, however, as negative news had been priced in recent losses, adding she expected the TAIEX to trade between 6,700-7,300 points this week.
Top contract chip maker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) fell 0.54 percent, after TSMC expressed concerns over slower demand for the third quarter last week. The electronics sub-index fell 1.6 percent. TSMC's losses came even after media reported that Merrill Lynch put the company onto its Asia-Pacific Focus 1 list.
Shares of Advanced Semiconductor Engineering (ASE), the world's biggest chip packaging and testing firm, dropped 5 percent before its quarterly earnings later today. Smartphone maker High Tech Computer (HTC) slid 0.99 percent even after the company said on Monday it is on track to sell 2 million Diamond smartphones this year, which compete with Apple's iPhones.