Taipei, July 19 (CNA) Taiwanese stocks fell more than 100 points Monday morning as big tech stocks came under pressure following losses suffered by their counterparts in US markets at the end of last week, the dealers said.

As the electronics sector retreated, purchases turned to some old economy stocks, especially in the shipping and steel industries, which kept the market as a whole from falling further. , said the dealers.

At 10:47 a.m., the Taiex, the weighted index of the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE), had lost 132.67 points, or 0.74%, to 17,762.58 for a turnover of 279.04 billion NT dollars ($ 9.97 billion).

The market opened 0.23% lower, and sales grew rapidly with tech heavyweights such as contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC).

That pushed Taiex lower amid a 0.80% drop in the tech-rich Nasdaq index on Friday, as local shipping and steel stocks appeared resilient, dealers said.

As of 10:47 am, the electronics sector had lost 1.23%, with the semiconductor sub-index down 1.30%.

“Investors reduced their holdings in the electronics sector today as they watched the Nasdaq index lose on Friday,” said Chang Chih-cheng, analyst at Moore Rich Securities Consulting.

“TSMC led the slowdown as sales continued after an earlier session, with many investors disappointed with its second quarter earnings,” Chang said.

As of 10:47 am, TSMC had lost 1.36% to NT $ 581.00 with 28.76 million shares changing hands after its U.S. certificates of deposit fell 1.52% in U.S. markets on Friday.

The stock began to come under downward pressure on Friday and sales continued on Monday after its investor conference held on Thursday in which the world’s largest contract chipmaker announced its gross margin – the difference between revenue and cost of goods sold – fell 2.4 percentage points from a quarter. earlier at 50 percent in the second trimester.

The decline in gross margin was cited as one of the key factors for TSMC to signal a sequential 3.8% drop in net profit to NT $ 134.36 billion in the second quarter.

“The lower gross margin reflects the higher depreciation costs of its advanced 5 nanometer process in the second quarter,” Chang said. “While TSMC may continue to post losses, I expect the stock to enjoy strong technical support at around NT $ 571.00, the March 24 intraday low,” Chang said.

The 5nm process is the latest technology TSMC has launched mass production for since the second quarter of last year.

Among other tech stocks, United Microelectronics Corp., a smaller contract chipmaker, lost 1.49%, falling to NT $ 52.90 per share, and smartphone IC designer MediaTek Inc. fell. from 3.76% to NT $ 921.00 at 10:47 a.m.

“The good thing about the motherboard was that purchases continued to shift to shipping and steel inventories amid optimism about a cyclical recovery,” Chang said.

In the shipping industry, Evergreen Marine Corp had risen 5.60% to NT $ 188.50, Yang Ming Marine Transport Corp. had increased 2.66% to NT $ 193.00 and Wan Hai Lines Ltd had gained 2.77% to NT $ 292.50 at 10:47 a.m.

Among the winning steel stocks, Tung Ho Steel Enterprise Corp. had gained 1.41% to reach NT $ 50.20, and Kao Hsing Chang Iron & Steel Corp. had risen 5.75% to NT $ 25.75.

(By Tsai Peng-min and Frances Huang)

Final element / cs