By Clare Jim
TAIPEI (Reuters) – Shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd tumbled and other Apple supplier and chip stocks fell after it cut its full-year revenue target on softer demand for smartphones.
Also citing uncertainty in the cryptocurrency mining market, the world’s largest contract chipmaker said revenue for 2018 is likely to grow 10 percent rather than the earlier forecast of 10-15 percent.
TSMC’s shares slid as much as 6.8 percent in morning trade to its lowest level since Dec. 29.
A raft of analysts read a prediction of softer-than-expected smartphone demand as driven chiefly be concern about demand for iPhones. Apple is believed to account for nearly 20 percent of the Taiwanese company’s revenue.
Barclays said on Thursday some Apple suppliers will likely see choppiness into June due to weakness in handset sales, while Mizuho Securities USA said it sees limited upside to 2018 iPhone unit shipment estimates.
In the United States, shares of Apple and its suppliers including Qualcomm Inc, Intel Corp, Qorvo Inc, Skyworks Solutions Inc and Broadcom Inc fell by 2 percent to 5 percent.
In Japan, shares of semiconductor equipment makers and electronic component makers, including Tokyo Electron and Advantest Corp also lost ground.
(Reporting by Clare Jim; Editing by Amrutha Gayathri and Edwina Gibbs)
