Taiwan: Stocks slump on Wall St losses; TSMC down before quarterly results

[TAIPEI] Taiwan stocks fell to four-and-half-a-month lows on Thursday as steep losses on Wall Street highlighted concerns about the global economic outlook, with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd (TSMC) in focus ahead of its fourth-quarter results.

The main TAIEX index was down 1.6 per cent at 0130 GMT, after falling as much as 2.1 per cent to its lowest level since Aug 26, 2015 earlier in the session. It closed 0.7 per cent higher in the previous session.

The electronics subindex sank 2.2 per cent, while the financials subindex lost 1.9 per cent.

TSMC, the world's top contract chip maker, was off nearly 2 per cent.

The Taiwan dollar firmed TW$0.146 to TW$33.479 per US dollar.

REUTERS