Taipei - Taiwan's stocks fell nearly 4 per cent on Tuesday, weighed down by bearish sentiment over the grim outlook of local technology and Wall Street's overnight losses. 

The TAIEX index opened sharply lower in response to huge overnight loss on Wall Street, and downward revision of a fourth-quarter sales forecast by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the bellwether of Taiwan's technology industry, dealers said. 

Although government funds moved in to try to boost the market, the local index continued its downward trend to close at 4,356.98 points, a drop of 161.45 points or 3.6 per cent. 

Except for the food sub-index, which rose 0.4 per cent, the rest of the seven major sectors plunged, with electrical and electronic sub-index suffering the biggest loss of 4.8 per cent. 

TSMC, the world's largest microchip contractor, fell 6.9 per cent. the company announced late Monday a reduction of its fourth-quarter sales forecast by 8.6 per cent to 

30-32 per cent, and profit margin forecast to 17-19 per cent from the earlier target of 21-23 per cent due to weaker demand. (dpa)