Taiwan stocks ended down 0.42 percent on Monday, with smartphone maker HTC falling after Apple won a preliminary ruling from a US trade panel that HTC infringed on two of the US company's patents. The sell-off came despite HTC announcing a share buyback over the weekend following the ruling in an attempt to support its shares.
HTC shed 3.97 percent, recovering from an earlier decline of over 6 percent. Also weighing on market sentiment were lingering concerns about eurozone debt problems and the US government's ability to reach a debt-reduction deal.
"The Taiwan market will be under pressure because of the problems in the US and the eurozone, falling to as low as 8,250 points through early August," said Simon Liu, deputy investment officer of Polaris Group's fund arm.
The main TAIEX index ended off 36.34 points at 8,538.57, dragged by losses in steel and electronics, which fell 3.28 percent and 1.22 percent respectively.
TSMC dipped 0.29 percent. The world's biggest contract chip maker has begun trial manufacturing of next generation chips for Apple's mobile devices, a source with knowledge of the matter said on Friday.
Bucking the slides were the automobile and food sectors, which rose 2.34 percent and 4.02 percent, respectively. Foreign investors were net sellers on Friday, bringing their total selling to T$34.9 billion this month.
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