Taiwan: Stocks mostly flat to lower; Asia down

[TAIPEI] Taiwan stocks were mostly flat to lower on Friday on lack of strong cues ahead of the weekend.

Asian shares slid from a 5 1/2-month high as disappointing earnings from US blue chip companies looked set to pour cold water on the rally that took off in March.

The main TAIEX index fell 0.1 per cent to 8,559.85 as of 0231 GMT, after closing up 0.6 per cent in the previous session.

The electronics subindex fell 0.1 per cent, while the financials subindex gained 0.4 per cent.

CTBC Financial, which is actively expanding in the region with its latest plan to snap up the Malaysian unit of Royal Bank of Scotland, was up 1.23 per cent.

Apple Inc suppliers were mixed ahead of the US giant's earnings release due Tuesday.

Hon Hai was up 0.8 per cent, while Pegatron was off 1.3 per cent; both assemble iPhones.

TSMC, which provides chips in some of the iPhones, was up 0.3 per cent, but Largan Precision, which provides camera lenses for most global smartphone brands, fell as much as 3.2 per cent.

The Taiwan dollar firmed T$0.016 to T$32.280 per US dollar.

REUTERS