Taipei:Following a sharp sell-off in the Taiwan Stock Exchange's benchmark index, the Taiex, Taiwan's stock market has fallen to seventh place globally in terms of market capitalization as of Saturday morning, according to real-time data from MarketCapWatch.

According to Focus Taiwan, the total market capitalization of Taiwan's stock market is now US$4.36 trillion, down from its recent peak ranking at fourth place. The United States leads globally with a market capitalization of US$78.43 trillion, followed by China, Japan, India, the United Kingdom, and Canada. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) ranks seventh among the world's largest listed companies, with a market cap of US$1.79 trillion.

On Friday, the Taiex dropped by 1,873.08 points, or 4.51 percent, closing at 39,701.64. This decline was influenced by losses in U.S. markets and concerns over potential restrictions on AI data center development after the Democratic Party's wins in U.S. congressional and gubernatorial races. For the week, the Taiex fell by 5,510.19 points, or 12.19 percent, with the main board's total market cap decreasing by NT$17.94 trillion to NT$130.84 trillion.

Excluding the electronics sector, the Taiex declined by 2,113.67 points, or 7.84 percent, during the week. Investor sentiment was negatively affected by worries that major cloud service providers might not achieve sufficient returns on AI infrastructure investments. The electronics component industry saw the steepest decline among major industries, while the biotechnology industry recorded a small gain.

The Taiwan Stock Exchange reported a turnover of NT$4.47 trillion for the week, with the semiconductor industry leading at NT$1.82 trillion. Since the start of the year, the main board's turnover has reached NT$203.14 trillion, with an average daily turnover of around NT$1 trillion.