Taiwan stocks end 0.83 pct lower

Taiwan stocks finished down 0.83 pct on Thursday,tracking slides by major world bourses.

Taiwan stocks finished down 0.83 per cent on Thursday,tracking slides by major world bourses,as fears of sustained global economic stagnation triggered concern over the business outlook for Taiwan8217;s technology exporters.

Most sectors lost ground,with the computer amp; peripherals sub-index falling 1.46 per cent and the electronics components sub-index down 1.34 per cent. The tourism sector was one bright spot,up 1.09 per cent amid growing trade ties between Taiwan and China.

All three major indexes in the United States posted their worst per centage drop since July 16 following the Federal Reserve8217;s bleaker assessment of the economy on Tuesday.

8220;The market might lose more momentum because we don8217;t think the US economy is going to be in good shape in the second half of the year,and that8217;s not good news for Taiwan exporters,8221; said Alex Huang,analyst at Mega International Securities.

The main TAIEX share index closed down 65.24 points at 7,829.79,after closing 1 per cent lower in the prior session.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd,the world8217;s top contract chipmaker which sells the bulk of its products to North America,was off 1.3 per cent,tracking a 2 per cent drop by its American Depository Receipts ADRs.

Smartphone maker HTC Corp fell 0.9 per cent and Acer Inc extended Wednesday8217;s losses to fall 0.7 per cent after reporting weaker July sales.

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Taishin Financial Holding Co Ltd rose 2.9 per cent and WPG Holdings Ltd,a distributor of electronics products and a big exporter to China,advanced 1.7 per cent.

8220;While tech shares weakened,funds flowed to financials and other companies that have improving fundamentals,but we don8217;t think the big board will rebound significantly,8221; said Tom Tang,a vice-president at Masterlink Investment Advisory.

Tang pegged the TAIEX at between 7,800-8,000 points in the short term.

Foreign investors had sold T4.8 billion worth of Taiwan stocks in the past two days,but they had bought T25.8 billion of local shares this month.