Pandemic fears sent the Taiex plunging on Monday. The weighted index was down by more than 600 points at its intraday low. It staged a modest recovery in the morning session, but still finished the day down nearly 473 points, or nearly 3%, at 15,353. About 85% of Taiwan’s listed companies ended lower. Food and biotech were the few winners of the session, with companies like Lian Hwa Foods and TTY Biopharm closing limit up.

Huang Wen-ching
Analyst
For companies centered on vaccines and testing, this is a relatively big business opportunity. So for stocks involved in that business, there’s strong upward momentum. I think that the benchmark stocks will continue to have benchmark value. That is, if these stocks are able to stabilize, the stock market as a whole will have a better chance at treading water, instead of sinking.

Large-cap tech stocks mainly weakened on Monday, although MediaTek was a rare bright spot, rising 2%. Textiles, paper, and tourism saw heavy casualties, while steel and shipping each fell by more than 8%.