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Taiwan shares down on first trading day of 2016

Xinhua, January 4, 2016 Adjust font size:

Taiwan shares closed down 223.8 points, or 2.68 percent, at 8,114.26 Monday, the biggest drop on the first trading day in the past 17 years.

The turnover totaled 76 billion New Taiwan dollars (2.30 billion U.S. dollars). Shares of chemical, cement, textile and financial industries dropped considerably and dragged the whole market down.

Electronic heavyweights, such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) and Hon Hai, also made a weak showing.

Analysts here attributed the reduction to the slump in the U.S. market and investors being cautious ahead of the island's elections on Jan. 16.

Judged by stock market performance ahead of previous elections, the trading in the next two weeks is likely to be minimal, analysts noted.

The island's stock markets in 2015 did not present an encouraging performance, down 969 points, or 10.41 percent, compared with the end of 2014, the worst reduction in the past 4 years, mostly due to the economic slowdown.

The market value shrank by 2.41 trillion New Taiwan dollars throughout the year, which meant that each registered investor lost 250,000 New Taiwan dollars on average.

Mainland shares also tumbled 7 percent on Monday, forcing an early end to the trading on Shanghai and Shenzhen bourses.

The slump is generally attributed to weaker than expected manufacturing activity in December and a steep fall in the yuan exchange rate. Endi