Taiwan stocks ended down 0.47 percent on Thursday, as investors offloaded risky assets ahead of the European Central Bank's policy decision later in the day, with oil and plastics counters among the main losers, down 0.86 percent and 0.83 percent respectively. HTC Corp shed 4.9 percent after trading in positive territory early in the session. It won a London court ruling against Apple Inc over a series of patent infringement claims.
The main TAIEX index fell 34.81 points to 7,387.78, after opening 0.14 percent lower. Electronics shares were off 0.64 percent, while banking shares slipped 0.41 percent. The Taiwan dollar was up slightly by T$0.004 to trade at T$29.862. Foreign investors were net buyers on Wednesday, bringing their total buying to T$4.14 billion this month.