Taiwan: Stocks fall with broader Asia ahead of Trump-Xi meeting

[TAIPEI] Taiwan stocks fell on Thursday, in line with broader Asia, as worries lingered over trade relations ahead of a potentially tense meeting between US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, the first between the two leaders.

The main Taiex index fell 0.6 per cent, to 9,885.83 points as of 0312 GMT, after closing up 1.4 per cent in the previous session, its biggest one-day percentage gain since November.

The Taiwan dollar softened NT$0.139 to NT$30.520 per US dollar.

The electronics subindex fell 0.7 per cent, while the financials subindex lost 0.4 per cent.

Hon Hai Precision Industry , the world's largest contract electronics maker, pulled back about one per cent. It had rallied nearly 8 per cent on Wednesday after clocking in a strong 30 per cent year-on-year net profit growth for the fourth quarter of last year.

Taipei has expressed concerns about the Trump-Xi meeting, which comes at a time when Taiwan is engaged in fresh arms sales talks with the United States, its sole arms supplier.

Arms sales to Taiwan angers China, which regards the self-ruled island part of its territory and has never ruled out the use of force to take control of what it sees as a wayward province.

REUTERS