The TAIEX yesterday closed below the 40,000-point threshold after a volatile session that saw the benchmark index swing more than 1,700 points, erasing an intraday surge of more than 1,100 points as late selling dragged the market lower.The index closed down 105.88 points, or 0.26 percent, at 39,933.30, following a brutal two-day plunge that wiped out 3,595.01 points earlier in the week, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.Fubon Securities Investment Services Co (富邦投顧) chairman Edward Chen (陳奕光) said the correction has been unusually steep, with the TAIEX down more than 6,192 points so far this month and on track for its biggest monthly point decline on record.
A woman looks at her phone in front of an electronic stock board at the Taiwan Stock Exchange in Taipei on Wednesday.
Combined margin balances on Taiwan’s stock market on Wednesday fell by a single-day record NT$52.1 billion (US$1.61 billion), indicating that much of the leveraged selling pressure had likely been flushed out, Chen said.Still, a rapid V-shaped recovery is unlikely after the TAIEX tumbled nearly 9,000 points from its record high of 48,218 at the end of last month to Wednesday’s intraday low of 39,384, he said.
Instead, the market is likely to remain volatile in the near term as it gradually forms a bottom, he added.As severe deleveraging in South Korean stocks continues and a correction in semiconductor stocks persists, alongside unresolved US-Iran conflicts and fluctuating oil prices, the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index, Taiwanese equities and South Korean stocks still face downward pressure after posting significant gains, Cathay United Bank Co (國泰世華銀行) said in a commentary.Deputy Minister of Finance Frank Juan (阮清華), executive secretary of the National Stabilization Fund, yesterday told a meeting of the legislature’s Finance Committee that the fund has closely monitored domestic and international political and economic situations, and would take appropriate measures in the event of market disorder.Taiwan’s stock market is highly correlated with international stock markets, Juan said.Due to the poor performance of foreign markets recently, the local bourse has also been negatively affected, he said, adding that fluctuations are normal.
