Asian shares headed lower on Friday as profit-taking in Taiwanese chip giant TSMC, despite record profits, weighed on other tech firms and broader risk sentiment


By Hideyuki Sano

TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian shares headed lower on Friday as profit-taking in Taiwanese chip giant TSMC, despite record profits, weighed on other tech firms and broader risk sentiment, while a more dovish U.S. rates outlook kept bond yields near multi-month lows.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan lost 0.35%, weighed by a 1.2% fall in Taiwanese shares after TSMC's earnings on Thursday.

TSMC, Asia's biggest firm by market capitalization outside China, fell almost 4% following its earnings on Thursday.

While the world's largest contract chipmaker posted record quarterly sales and forecast higher revenue for the current quarter, investors took profits, fearing its best times could already be behind it.

"Its earnings were excellent and to me, the market seems to be a bit overreacting," said Norihiro Fujito, chief investment strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities. "But the fall in its profit margin led to the view that its growth momentum might be peaking out."

TSMC's fall weighed on many other semiconductor-related shares in the region, with South Korea's Kospi down 0.6% and Japan's Nikkei losing 1.1%.

Weakness in chip-related shares also helped to bring down the S&P 500 0.33% and the Nasdaq Composite 0.70% on Thursday.

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