Taiwan’s Taiex falls 2.49% to 45,211.83 as technology stocks retreat

Key Facts

Taiwan’s Taiex index ended Friday, October 30, down 1,156.50 points, or 2.49%, at 45,211.83, after trading between 44,726.26 and 46,139.79 during the session, according to Taiwan’s Central News Agency. The decline came as concerns about the scale of artificial intelligence spending returned to investor sentiment following earnings reports from U.S. cloud services companies. An analyst at Concord Capital said Alphabet and Amazon’s reports fueled the concern, adding that "concerns over AI spending are back to haunt investor sentiment." Trading value was NT$877.73 billion, equivalent to US$26.96 billion. The index recorded a second losing session, after closing higher on October 28 and then falling over the following two days.

Daily losses accelerated compared with Thursday’s session, when the index closed at 46,368.33, after standing at 47,035.58 on October 28. It had risen 939.35 points, or 2.04%, on Wednesday as U.S. technology stocks rebounded and optimism over AI returned; Friday’s session therefore was not a second consecutive daily decline. An analyst said investors trimmed holdings and took profits after technology stocks’ gains since the start of the year and disappointing earnings reports. Taiwan’s electronics index also fell 2.90% on Friday, after the Nasdaq dropped 1.38% on Thursday. The analyst said lower trading value reflected some investors’ reluctance to buy on the dip amid uncertainty ahead of the U.S. midterm elections, and the Taiex fell below technical resistance near 45,300.

Shares of TSMC, the market’s largest constituent, were among the biggest sources of pressure on the index. The company accounts for more than 40% of total market capitalization, and its shares fell 1.86%, contributing about 360 points to the Taiex’s decline. In another measure of repositioning, foreign institutional investors were net sellers of NT$112.47 billion in Taiwanese stocks during the session. The decline spread to regional markets: South Korea’s Kospi lost 3.5% on Friday as investors reduced exposure to AI-linked stocks following disappointing results from major technology companies. The MSCI Asia emerging-markets equities index also fell 1.6%, weighed down by declines in the Kospi and the Taiwanese index, which was down 2.5% in the regional report’s calculation. An analyst at Pepperstone said, "Demand is still there, but the market has become more selective in directing its money."

By contrast, an official at Taiwan’s National Development Council said stock volatility reflected investor concerns and did not indicate weaker demand for AI technologies. The official cited TrendForce projections that combined capital spending by the world’s nine largest cloud service providers would exceed US$1.5 trillion in 2027. The projections come as investors debate whether returns can keep pace with spending, after results from U.S. cloud companies revived concerns in the market. In the local economy, the business monitoring indicator remained in the red in September, with its reading rising one point to 41 after August’s figure was revised to 40. September marked the tenth consecutive red signal, surpassing the previous run of nine months from February to October 2021; red in the council’s five-color system indicates economic prosperity or a risk of overheating.

The next near-term event on Taiwan’s market calendar is TSMC’s announcement of its October monthly sales on November 10, 2026, according to the company’s investor relations calendar. The announcement follows a session in which the stock fell; it represents more than 40% of market capitalization and carries substantial weight in the index’s movements. The sales data will provide a fresh indication of the company’s performance during the month, while investor concerns about returns on AI spending remain after cloud companies’ earnings reports. In the October 28 session, some investors had been waiting for results from major companies linked to AI, including Microsoft, Alphabet and Amazon, an analyst said. Markets are therefore watching both company figures and projected spending in 2027 amid increasing selectivity in investment allocation.