Taiwan stocks fell 0.38 percent in a rare Saturday session, with big tech exporters such as Hon Hai tracking losses in US counterparts, amid fears that a stronger local dollar would hurt their profits.
The main TAIEX share index ended down 33.48 points at 8,812.91. Softer turnover of T$118.19 billion ($3.61 billion) reflected the cautious mood following the market's surge to a seven-year high earlier this week.
Taiwan's stock market opened on Saturday to make up for the Dragon Boat Festival break earlier this week. "It's inevitable for the market to pull back but we might see it regain momentum very soon because foreign investors have been big buyers recently," said Alex Huang, vice president at Mega International Securities.
More capital inflows to the island are likely as the spread between interest rates in the United States and Taiwan has narrowed after Taiwan's central bank raised interest rates on Thursday to the highest level in more than 5-1/2 years.
Electronics parts maker, Hon Hai Precision Industry, fell 1.38 percent and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd (TSMC), the world's top contract chip maker which sells most of its products to North America, shed 1.01 percent.
Their losses pulled the electronics sub-index 0.48 percent lower. Financials were off 0.53 percent. On the bright side, the recent gains in the Taiwan dollar gave a boost to companies that have large assets - Taiwan Fertiliser Co Ltd jumped 2.31 percent and China Petrochemical Corp edged up 0.89 percent. Delta Electronics Inc, the world's biggest maker of power supplies, lost 0.39 percent after the firm gave a sales forecast for next year that was short of market expectations. Cathay Financial Holdings Co Ltd fell 1.78 percent even after a local newspaper reported that its insurance arm spent T$1.4 billion to buy a building in Taichung, central Taiwan, forecasting an investment return rate of over five percent.
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