Stocks ended higher yesterday in cautious range-bound trading, with government funds and other investors buying just enough to push the index into positive territory ahead of a long holiday, dealers said.
The TAIEX rose 42.57, or 0.9 percent, to close at 5,015.16. More than three stocks rose for every two that declined. The value of trade was NT$83.2 billion.
Starting today, the financial markets will be shut for the Lunar New Year holiday that will last through Feb. 5.
Foreign exchange, bond and money market trading continues until the end trade tomorrow.
Steel stocks gained momentum from product domestic price hikes, with the electronics sector also firmer on bargain-hunting.
China Steel Corp (中鋼) rose NT$0.90, or 4 percent, to NT$23.50. The company will raise the prices of its cold-rolled steel and hot-rolled steel products by as much as NT$1,400 a ton in February and March, a Taiwan-based Web site reported, citing no one. China Steel may increase prices for the second quarter by a bigger amount than it did for the first quarter, the Web site reported.
United Microelectronics Corp (UMC,
Silicon Integrated rose NT$1.60, or 5.4 percent, to NT$31.10. Macronix International Co (旺宏電子), the maker of chips used in Nintendo Co's GameCube, fell to NT$11.65.
Formosa Chemicals & Fiber Corp (台塑化纖) rose NT$0.30, or 0.8 percent, to NT$39. The country's biggest maker of pure terephthalic acid, a component used in plastic bottles, plans to invest more than NT$10 billion to build a new aromatic hydrocarbons plant, a local newspaper reported, citing no one.
The plant will have annual production capacity of 1.28 million tons and will help supply paraxylene, used for making pure terephthalic acid, to its local factories and to a planned factory in China, the paper said.
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