TAIPEI: Taiwan shares took a beating in the mid-Thursday session after the country reported disappointing export order data for April, which raised concerns about the economic climate, dealers said.
Downward pressure focused on large-cap stocks in both the electronics and non-high tech sectors to push down the index by more than 100 points initially, triggering loss-stop selling before the index recovered some of its earlier losses later, the dealers said.
As of 10:52 a.m., the weighted index on the Taiwan Stock Exchange had fallen 99.00 points, or 1.02 percent, at 9,586.31, on turnover of NT$54.54 billion (US$1.79 billion).
The bellwether electronics sector was down 0.65 percent, while the financial sub-index was down 1.85 percent.
“Opening today’s newspapers, investors found overwhelmingly negative leads, in particular the weak April export order report. They had no choice but to turn downbeat about the economic fundamentals,” Hua Nan Securities analyst Kevin Su said.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs reported a day earlier that Taiwan’s export orders for April fell 4 percent from a year earlier, marking the first drop since July 2013. According to the ministry, the fall reflected a plunge in international oil prices, which sent petrochemical and rubber prices lower, while local electronics suppliers also faced fierce competition from emerging rivals in China and witnessed their orders falling.
