Taiwanese shares closed down 3.74 percent yesterday as market sentiment was hammered by the US Senate’s failure to reach a bailout deal for the ailing auto industry, dealers said.
The weighted index fell 174.30 points to 4,481.27 off a low of 4,401.05 and a high of 4,654.75 on turnover of NT$90.22 billion (US$2.71 billion).
Losers led gainers by 1,291 to 247 with 190 stocks unchanged.
The market opened down 1.17 percent on a Wall Street plunge overnight as investors shrugged off an interest rate cut by the central bank on Thursday, dealers said.
In line with steep declines on regional markets, the downside extended in late morning trade after the US Senate failed to pass a plan to rescue the Big Three automakers, they said.
In the past four sessions, the market has risen about 10 percent on a technical rebound.
“Investors used the botched US auto bailout deal as an excuse to pocket the recent gains,” Taiwan International Securities (金鼎證券) analyst Arch Shih (施博元) said, adding that financial and electronic heavyweights encountered stiffer pressure.
Shih said he suspected that institutional investors stood behind the sell-off after rushing to pick up bargains in recent sessions.
Dealers said that Thursday’s larger-than-expected 75 basis point interest rate cut raised fears that the domestic economy was in worse condition than previously anticipated.
“The silver lining is that the daily turnover remained moderate, and that shows many investors are willing to keep their holdings, expecting bargain-hunting will soon emerge,” Shih said.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday obtained the government’s approval to inject an additional US$7.5 billion into its US subsidiary, the Department of Investment Review said in a statement. The department approved TSMC’s application of investing in TSMC Arizona Corp, which is engaged in the manufacturing, sales, testing and design of IC and other semiconductor devices, it said. The latest capital injection follows a US$5 billion investment for TSMC Arizona approved in June. The chipmaker has broken ground on two advanced fabs in Arizona with aggregated investments approved by the department totaling US$24 billion thus far. According to TSMC, the first Arizona
The lethal hack of Hezbollah’s Asian-branded pagers and walkie-talkies has sparked an intense search for the devices’ path, revealing a murky market for older technologies where buyers might have few assurances about what they are getting. While supply chains and distribution channels for higher-margin and newer products are tightly managed, that is not the case for older electronics from Asia where counterfeiting, surplus inventories and complex contract manufacturing deals can sometimes make it impossible to identify the source of a product, analysts and consultants say. The response from the companies at the center of the booby-trapped gadgets that killed 37
FRIENDLY TAKEOVER: While Qualcomm Inc’s proposal to buy some or all of Intel raises the prospect of other competitors, Broadcom Inc is staying on the sidelines Qualcomm Inc has approached Intel Corp to discuss a potential acquisition of the struggling chipmaker, people with knowledge of the matter said, raising the prospect of one of the biggest-ever merger and acquisition deals. California-based Qualcomm proposed a friendly takeover for Intel in recent days, said the sources, who asked not to be identified discussing confidential information. The proposal is for all of the chipmaker, although Qualcomm has not ruled out buying some parts of Intel and selling off others. It is uncertain whether the initial approach would lead to an agreement and any deal is likely to come under close antitrust scrutiny
SECURITY CONCERNS: The proposed ban on Chinese autonomous vehicle software and hardware would go into effect with the 2027 and 2030 model years respectively The US Department of Commerce today is expected to propose prohibiting Chinese software and hardware in connected and autonomous vehicles on US roads due to national security concerns, two sources said. US President Joe Biden’s administration has raised concerns about the collection of data by Chinese companies on US drivers and infrastructure as well as the potential foreign manipulation of vehicles connected to the Internet and navigation systems. The proposed regulation would ban the import and sale of vehicles from China with key communications or automated driving system software or hardware, said the two sources, who declined to be identified because the