TAIPEI: Taiwan shares staged a technical rebound in the mid-morning session Wednesday as bargain hunters rushed to take advantage of a dive in the weighted index seen a session earlier, dealers said.
Buying focused on the bellwether electronics sector, which was hammered by concerns over slow season effects in the second quarter, led by semiconductor stocks, in particular Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co the most heavily weighted stock in the local market, they said.
As of 10:51 a.m., the weighted index on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) had added 1.20 percent to 9,302.47 points on turnover of NT$50.46 billion (US$1.62 billion). Led by the main board, the over-the-counter (OTC) market also bounced back, up 1.81 percent at 134.68 points.
The electronics sub-index rose 1.18 percent with TSMC up 1.44 percent at NT$141.00 with 16.92 million shares changing hands.
“It seemed that the local main board had been oversold yesterday. That’s why investors rushed to seek bargains soon after the market opened today,” Hua Nan Securities analyst Kevin Su said. The weighted index on TWSE fell 1.88 percent Tuesday as large-cap stocks across the board came under great pressure.
Many investors are still trying to get used to new trading mechanism since it went into effect on June 1, Su said, referring to the wider daily fluctuation limits of 10 percent, expanding from the previous 7 percent.
“With the daily stock price fluctuations widening, investors tended to dump more of their shares as they witnessed the index taking a beating in a bid to prevent further losses. The Tuesday session was simply driven by such panic,” Su said.