Taiwan equities finished the Wednesday session lower, with the Taiwan Weighted index retreating 1.37% by the close.
Sector pressure came primarily from the Electricity and Oil, Gas & Electricity groups, which led declines across the bourse.
Top performers
- Zenitron Corp (TW:3028) was the session's strongest, advancing 10.00% or 4.60 points to close at 50.60.
- Promate Electronic Co Ltd (TW:6189) rose 9.92% or 4.35 points to finish at 48.20.
- HannsTouch Solution Inc (TW:3049) gained 9.91% or 0.92 points to end the day at 10.20.
Biggest decliners
- Formosa Advanced Technologies Co Ltd (TW:8131) slipped 10.00% or 7.90 points to close at 71.10.
- Walsin Lihwa Corp (TW:1605) fell 10.00% or 4.35 points to end at 39.15.
- Walton Advanced Engineering Inc (TW:8110) dropped 9.96% or 7.90 points to 71.40 at the close.
Market breadth data showed that falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Taiwan Stock Exchange, with the reported count recorded as 0 to 0.
Zenitron Corp's session gain also coincided with an all-time high for the stock, rising to 50.60 on the day.
Commodities and currencies
Commodities trading saw gains: crude oil for March delivery was up 0.89% or 0.56 to $63.77 a barrel. Brent oil for delivery in April rose 0.73% or 0.49 to $67.82 a barrel. The April Gold Futures contract climbed 3.33% or 164.39 to trade at $5,099.39 a troy ounce.
On the currency front, USD/TWD was down 0.06% to 31.58, while TWD/CNY unchanged 0.09% to 0.22. The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.10% at 97.20.
Takeaway
The session closed with the benchmark down 1.37%, driven by weakness in energy-related and electricity sectors, even as several individual names recorded double-digit percentage moves to both the upside and downside. Moves in oil, Brent and gold futures, together with modest shifts in currency pairs, were notable features of the trading day.