(Bloomberg) -- Taiwan stocks sank for a third day in volatile trading, extending a rout that’s triggered the fastest liquidation of leveraged positions since 2018.
The Taiex closed 1.5% lower at 15,670.10 points, taking its decline from the April 27 peak to 11%, a technical correction. Over the past four days, the benchmark lost 9.3% on concerns over further tightening of coronavirus-linked restrictions. It briefly pared losses on Thursday morning after Apple Daily reported that the government sees a lower chance of raising the Covid-19 alert level.
Forced selling has compounded this week’s losses, with the level of margin debt falling by a net NT$12.9 billion ($461 million) on Wednesday, according to exchange data compiled by Bloomberg. That takes the two-day drop in leverage to NT$25.6 billion, showing traders faced margin calls by brokers to cover losses in their stock accounts.
“The epidemic situation can change at any time, so that may cause the market to be more volatile,” said Huang Wen-ching, vice president at Taishin Securities Investment Advisory Co.
The worry is that falling share prices will trigger a continuous downward spiral in Taiwan equities, adding to a long list of challenges facing investors in the $1.9 trillion market. The of margin debt in surged 46% this year to about NT$274 billion at its peak at the end of April, the highest since 2011. By comparison, the Taiwan benchmark was up 19% in that period, an indication that people were taking out loans faster than stocks were appreciating.
The sharp reversal in Taiwan stocks is a warning to highly leveraged investors around the world. The Taiex was the world’s best performing equity gauge in the three years through April, surging almost 80% in U.S. dollar terms, as a seemingly never-ending rally in tech shares pulled in retail investors. It’s now suffering the biggest drop globally.
Taiwan’s National Stabilization Fund Committee may hold a meeting soon to respond to the rout, finance minister Su Jain-rong said at a meeting of the legislature’s Finance Committee on Wednesday, according to the Taipei Times. The fund last year pledged to back the stock market with as much as NT$500 billion as stocks crashed globally in March, while the Financial Supervisory Commission tightened rules on short selling.
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