The TAIEX, Taiwan’s benchmark stock index, fell 185 points, or 0.4%, to 49,527 in Tuesday morning trading, snapping a four-session winning streak as investors took profits following a fresh record high the previous day. Even so, the index held above the 49,000 mark for a second straight intraday session, after closing at 49,712 in the prior session.
The pullback was led by electronic technology stocks, which slipped 0.4% after a 2.9% surge the day before. Additional weakness came from process industries (-0.9%) and communications (-0.7%).
TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker and a heavyweight accounting for more than 40% of the market’s total capitalization, eased 0.2%, reversing part of Monday’s 3.0% jump. Elsewhere in the semiconductor and tech space, MediaTek tumbled 4.7%, Unimicron Technology declined 1.9%, and United Microelectronics lost 3.9%.
Sentiment was also cautious ahead of this week’s release of the FOMC minutes. However, an upbeat session on Wall Street overnight—driven by a rally in U.S. tech stocks—helped limit the scale of the TAIEX’s losses.
