Taiwan stocks fell on Thursday after the trade-reliant island reported a worse-than-expected fall in September shipments, and effectively wrote off any chances of a global export recovery this year. Weakness was seen in all of Taiwan's major export markets, reinforcing views that the economy likely shrank in the third quarter. As of 0205 GMT, the main TAIEX index was down 0.4 percent at 8,461.59 points, after closing up 0.1 percent in the previous session.
The financials subindex lost 0.5 percent, while the electronics subindex rose 0.1 percent. Chip players were the top gainers, up 0.7 percent, even though Taiwan's finance ministry said on Wednesday an expected recovery for the semiconductor industry will be delayed into early 2016 from the end of this year. The Taiwan dollar firmed T$0.203 to T$32.669 per US dollar. Taiwan markets will be closed on Friday due to National Day long weekend.