Taiwan's share prices closed lower Tuesday, with the weighted index, the market's key barometer, falling 88.82 points, or 1.06 percent, to close at 8,249. The local bourse opened higher and surged to the day's high of 8,395.39 before sliding under high selling pressure. A total of 5.58 billion shares changed hands on market turnover of NT$157.83 billion (US$4.96 billion). All eight major stock categories lost ground, with construction shares shedding the most at 1.4 percent. They were followed by electronics and machinery issues at 1.3 percent, plastics and chemicals shares and paper and pulp stocks, both at 1.2 percent, and textile shares at 0.6 percent. Cement stocks fell 0.3 percent, while banking and financial stocks dropped 0.2 percent and foodstuff shares lost 0.1 percent. Losers outnumbered gainers 2,348 to 885, with 190 stocks remaining unchanged. Foreign institutional investors and China qualified domestic institutional investors were top sellers of NT$3.2 billion in shares. 