Taipei Times
Date: Jan 30, 2020
By: Crystal Hsu  /  Staff reporter

The TAIEX is expected to fall today as it has yet to react to worries over a worsening coronavirus outbreak that scourged global markets during the week-long Lunar New Year holiday.

The benchmark rose 0.24 percent to 12,118.71 points on Tuesday last week, the final trading day for the Year of the Pig, and might open with a slump of 3 to 5 percent, in line with declines on Wall Street, market analysts said.

“It is unlikely for the TAIEX to buck the global trend, given many [Taiwanese] companies have operations in China,” where reported cases of 2019 novel coronavirus infections have risen sharply over the past week, Taishin Securities Investment Advisory Co (台新投信) vice president Tony Huang (黃文清) said.

Technology plays, especially semiconductor shares, could be hit hard due to their heavy exposure to Chinese clients, Huang said, adding that US semiconductor stocks weakened 4 percent during the holiday, boding ill for local names.    [FULL  STORY]