Taiwan: Stocks fall; TSMC edges up

[TAIPEI] Taiwan stocks fell on Thursday, tracking slides in some other Asian bourses even as the US Federal Reserve provided a positive assessment of the world's largest economy and lifted risk sentiment.

China's Shanghai Composite index dipped 0.5 per cent, while Japan's Nikkei was off 0.7 per cent.

Asian stocks however edged up, with MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rising 0.2 per cent after briefly climbing to its highest level since August 2015.

The Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged on Wednesday but said near-term risks to the US economic outlook had diminished.

While Fed policymakers said they continued to closely monitor inflation data and global economic and financial developments, they indicated less worry about possible shocks that could push the economy off course.

As of 0302 GMT, the main Taiex index fell 0.1 per cent, to 9,059.19, after closing at 9,063.39 in the previous session.

It was trading in a tight range early on Thursday.

Taiwan's electronics subindex fell 0.1 per cent, while the financials subindex gained 0.3 per cent.

Among the most actively traded, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the world's top contract chip maker, inched up 0.3 per cent.

Flat panel maker AU Optronics rose 2 per cent.

The Taiwan dollar firmed NT$0.097 to NT$31.971 per US dollar.

REUTERS