Taiwan: Stocks slightly down, cautious trading ahead of rate meeting

[TAIPEI] Taiwan stocks were slightly down on Wednesday, hovering up and down amid caution over the weak trade-reliant economy.

Taiwan's central bank holds its quarterly policy meeting on Thursday when it is expected to continue a rate-cutting cycle that it began in late September to counter weak external demand.

The main TAIEX index fell 0.20 per cent to 8,768.42 as of 0216 GMT, after closing down 0.3 per cent in the previous session.

The electronics subindex and the financial subindex were slightly lower to flat.

Among actively traded shares, display maker Innolux was up 1.8 per cent, but smartphone brand HTC Corp was off 1.7 per cent.

The Taiwan dollar firmed T$0.112 to stand at T$32.413 to the US dollar.

REUTERS