Market plunges 1612 points, seventh-largest drop on record
Dragged by a plunge of over 3.3% in the U.S. Philadelphia Semiconductor Index on the 2nd, Taiwan stocks faced heavy selling pressure on the 3rd. The weighted index opened at 44481.59 points and trended lower, breaking below 44000 points intraday to a low of 43191.58 points, and closed at 43307.54 points, down 1612.6 points, or 3.59%, the seventh-largest single-day closing drop on record, with turnover of about NT$9301.54 hundred million.
All heavyweights fall, only 1 high-priced stock closes up
Large electronics heavyweights all closed lower. TSMC fell NT$35 to close at NT$2295, down 1.5%. MediaTek plunged 7.43% to close at NT$3675. Delta Electronics fell 6.27% to close at NT$1270. Hon Hai fell 2.19% to close at NT$245.5. ASE Technology Holding plunged 8.61%, while EMC, UMC and Unimicron weakened together. Memory stocks Nanya Technology, Winbond and Phison all hit limit-down, with Kinsus, Nan Ya PCB, Nanzih Electronics, Daliang, as well as Huastar, TrueLight, LuxNet and Tong Hsing also hitting limit-down, while Walsin Technology, Holy Stone, Largan Precision, MPI, Highpower Technology and All Ring Tech hit limit-down together. Of 43 thousand-NT-dollar stocks, 42 closed lower, including 28 down more than 6%. Listed decliners reached 1798 companies, including 74 hitting limit-down, with only 118 gainers. Plastics, optoelectronics, and oil, gas and electricity fell 8.74%, 7.88% and 7.17% respectively.
Taiwan Glass EPS doubles, surges over 6% against the trend
Glass stocks rose 5.36% against the trend, and cement and kiln manufacturing rose 1.05%, rare bright spots on the market. Taiwan Glass posted third-quarter EPS of NT$0.93, better than NT$0.44 in the second quarter, and its board approved an expansion plan of about NT$72.6 hundred million to tap AI high-end fiberglass cloth opportunities, driving its shares up over 6% against the trend.
Foreign investors sell NT$1073 hundred million, eighth-largest on record
Foreign investors sold a net NT$1073.07 hundred million, up from NT$735.21 hundred million in the previous session, selling for 4 straight sessions, ranking as the eighth-largest single-day sell on record. Proprietary dealers sold a net NT$87.04 hundred million on their own books and sold NT$503.51 hundred million in hedging positions, for combined sales of NT$590.55 hundred million. Investment trusts bought a net NT$199.05 hundred million, buying for 16 straight sessions, but down from NT$338.16 hundred million the previous day. The three major institutional investors together sold a net NT$1464.57 hundred million, up sharply from NT$549.93 hundred million the previous day. Foreign investors added 2433 net short positions in TAIFEX futures, bringing outstanding net shorts to 91812 contracts, bearish in both spot and futures. Listed margin balances fell only NT$7.69 hundred million in the previous session to still reach NT$6226.99 hundred million, while OTC margin fell about NT$8.9 hundred million, for a combined listed and OTC decline of about NT$16.58 hundred million, or about 0.2%, raising the risk of margin-call selling pressure.