TAIPEI: Shares in Taiwan closed lower Friday, failing to sustain early gains amid worries over further volatility down the road, dealers said.
The bellwether electronics sector continued trending lower at the close because of lingering concerns over slow season effects seen in the second quarter, they said.
After a 2.66 percent plunge on Thursday, the financial sector only staged a mild technical rebound as investors feared that falling bond prices on the U.S. market will erode financial holding companies’ overseas investment returns, dealers said.
The weighted index on the Taiwan Stock Exchange closed down 31.35 points, or 0.32 percent, at 9,579.48, after moving between 9,552.86 and 9,644.83, on turnover of NT$83.77 billion (US$2.75 billion).
It was the 10th losing session out of 13 since the market hit a 15-year closing high of 9,973.12 on April 27.
The market opened up 0.28 percent and rose to the day’s high after bouncing back from a 1.16 percent fall seen a day earlier, when the Executive Yuan raised proposed capital gains tax rates on real estate sales, dealers said.
Once the index breached the 9,600-point mark, however, selling set in, especially in the electronics sector, to push the broader market into negative territory, and the weakness continued to the end of the session, they said.
