Taiwan: Stocks fall; semiconductor, transportation shares down

[TAIPEI] Taiwan stocks fell on Friday, led by the semiconductor and transportation indexes as the Taiwan dollar continued to weaken further from a near-29-month high posted earlier this week.

Asian shares were mixed on Friday, with the US dollar extending overnight gains on signs of strong US economic growth.

As of 0306 GMT, the main Taiex index fell 0.16 per cent to 9,832.80 points, after closing down 0.1 per cent in the previous session.

The semiconductor subindex fell 0.85 per cent, and the transportation index lost 0.44 per cent.

Additionally, the financial subindex was down 0.07 per cent.

Among actively traded shares, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, the world's largest contract chipmaker and a major Apple Inc supplier, was down 0.52 per cent.

The Taiwan dollar weakened NT$0.051 to stand at NT$30.366 to the US dollar, reversing a strengthening trend seen earlier in the week.

REUTERS