Taiwan share prices close down -- Aug. 18

Share prices on the Taiwan Stock Exchange opened high but closed lower Friday, with the weighted index, the market's key barometer, moving down 12.38 points to close at 6,721.08, according to information reaching here from Taipei.

The bourse opened at the day's high of 6,761.4 and dipped to the day's low of 6,719.75 during trading. A total of 2.89 billion shares changed hands on a market turnover of 81.52 billion HK dollars (2.5 billion U.S. dollars).

Three of the eight major stock categories gained ground, with plastics and chemicals shares moving up the most at 1 percent and cement stocks and banking and financial shares both increasing 0.1 percent.

Five of the eight major stock categories lost ground, with foodstuff issues moving down the most at 1.6 percent, followed by construction issues at 0.8 percent, paper and pulp issues at 0.7 percent, textile stocks at 0.6 percent and machinery and electronics shares at 0.5 percent.

Losers outnumbered gainers 695 to 333, with 127 stocks remaining unchanged.

Source: Xinhua