Acer Inc, the world's No 2 PC brand, slipped 2.48 percent, with the electronics sub-index 0.14 percent lower. "Taiwan stocks have been overbought in the past month, so profit-taking is emerging," said John Chiu, vice-president with Fuh Hwa Securities Investment Trust.
Taiwan stocks have risen more than 6 percent since mid-December last year, advancing faster than some regional peers including South Korea and Hong Kong, raising fears that Taiwan stocks may be overbought. The Taiwan stock market is the fifth-best performer among 30 tracked by Thomson Reuters from December 18, 2009 to date.
"Although Acer aims to overtake HP as the world's largest PC maker as reported in newspapers, what investors care about most is future earnings," said Andrew Deng, an assistant vice-president with Taiwan International Securities. "The news did not have much effect on investor buying," he said. Netbook pioneer Asustek dropped 0.89 percent.
Research firm IDC said Asustek projected the strongest growth for full-year 2009 among Asia's top five PC makers, with its shipments up 37 percent from 2008, helped by the growing popularity of low-cost netbook PCs. Cathay Financial, Taiwan's top listed financial holding company, fell 2.01 percent after China's ICBC said it was not in talks to buy a stake in Cathay's insurance unit in China.
The financial sub-index ended down 1.61 percent. Mediatek Inc, the world's No 2 cell phone chip supplier, bucked the trend, gaining 1.05 percent. "Demand for cell phone chips in China is growing as 3G mobile phones are a fast growing sector in the country," said Taiwan International Securities' Deng. China Steel climbed 0.15 percent after the company said on Wednesday shortly before the market closed that it would raise domestic product prices by about 5 percent on average for March from January-February, reflecting growing global demand.