Intraday Plunge of 3737點 Hits Record, Closes Down 1873點
Taiwan stocks today (6)日 staged a sharply volatile session, with the TAIEX falling as much as 3737.67點 in early trade to a low of 37837.05點, marking the largest intraday drop on record. As the Financial Supervisory Commission said it would discuss market rescue measures in the afternoon, market panic eased slightly, the decline gradually narrowed, and the index closed at 39701.64點, down 1873.08點, or 4.51%, falling below the 4萬點 mark, with single-day turnover reaching 1兆2461.04億元, signaling heavy selling pressure and active turnover.
By individual stock performance, only 105 gainers versus 952 decliners in the listed market, with another 27 unchanged, including 4 hitting the daily limit-up and 24 hitting limit-down, showing a broadly weak pattern overall. The intraday plunge of over 3700點 reflected concentrated selling pressure, followed by a narrowing of more than 1800點 on expectations of possible policy intervention, but the market still closed down more than 1800點.
Foreign Investors Sell for 7th Day With 911億 Withdrawal, Investment Trusts Buy for 19th Day
On chips, the three major institutional investors sold a net 1140.07億元 combined today, with foreign investors selling a net 911.88億元, narrower than the previous day's 1024.6億元 but still a 7th straight trading day of net selling. Investment trusts bought a net 266.58億元 against the trend, standing on the buy side for a 19th straight trading day, forming a standoff between domestic and foreign capital. For proprietary traders, proprietary trading sold a net 43.09億元 and hedging operations sold a net 451.67億元, for a combined net sell of 494.76億元. The three major institutional investors bought a total of 6038.09億元 and sold 7178.16億元, with the overall net sell slightly narrower than the previous day's 1233.94億元.
Over the whole week, foreign investors withdrew a cumulative 5243.76億元 over 5 trading days, while investment trusts added 1287.86億元 against the trend, but still unable to offset the heavy selling from foreign investors and proprietary traders, with the three major institutional investors selling a net 6004.55億元 for the week, showing this week's selling pressure mainly came from foreign investors and proprietary traders, and although investment trust buying continued, it could not reverse the overall oversold pattern.
Stocks Fall While Currency Rises, Taiwan Dollar Surges 1.7角 in Afternoon
Notably, despite Taiwan stocks plunging more than 1800點 and continued foreign outflows, the New Taiwan dollar reversed course in the afternoon. The USD/NTD rate was tentatively quoted at 32.925元 at midday, falling quickly from around 32.94元 to near 32.7元 before 2時 in the afternoon, and as of 3時11分 in the afternoon quoted at 32.702元, up 1.7角 from the previous trading day's close, showing a pattern of falling stocks with a rising currency. As the central bank had just called on exporters the previous day to sell dollars when there is settlement demand, the sharp rise of the New Taiwan dollar amid the steep stock market drop has sparked market speculation over whether the central bank intervened. However, whether this appreciation came from concentrated dollar selling by exporters, bank position adjustments, or central bank intervention, there is currently no clear evidence, and the actual cause remains to be clarified.