TSMC shares soar almost 2% despite Bershire's exit from stock

TSMC, the most heavily weighted stock in the local stock market, rose 1.92 percent to close at NT$505.00 (US$16.40) on the Taiwan Stock Exchange, where the Taiex ended up 198.85 points, or 1.28 percent, at 15,673.90, led by the bellwether electronics sector.

"Berkshire's move to cut its holdings in TSMC to zero was widely anticipated after the investment firm sharply lowered its holdings in the stock in the fourth quarter of last year," Mega International Investment Services Corp. analyst Alex Huang said.

Dealers said TSMC and other semiconductor stocks in Taiwan were lifted by a 2.68 percent rise in the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index on Monday, a rally led by dynamic random access memory chip supplier Micron Technology Inc.

In a so-called 13-F filing, which discloses investment firms' portfolios, to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday, Berkshire Hathaway said it had offloaded the remaining TSMC shares it owned.

A previous filing by Berkshire Hathaway in February showed that it had cut its holdings in TSMC's American depositary receipts (ADRs) by 86 percent from the third quarter of last year to about 8.3 million units in the fourth quarter.

The disposal of the large chunk of TSMC ADRs announced in February caught observers off guard because Berkshire Hathaway Chairman Warren Buffett has long been seen as a long-term investor.

In an annual general meeting held by Berkshire Hathaway in May, Buffet explained that he decided to sell his holdings in TSMC because of concerns over geopolitical risks.