Shares ended slightly higher yesterday, with panel display and memory-chip stocks leading gains.
The weighted price index ended the session 20.6 points, or 0.3 percent higher at 6,494.71, with trades expanding to NT$144.0 billion (US$4.34 billion) from Monday's NT$112.82 billion.
Gainers beat decliners 487 to 372, while 118 stocks ended unchanged.
"People love display and DRAM stocks because these shares have been resilient to political instability,'' said Capital Securities (群益證券) vice president Alan Tseng (曾炎裕).
Quanta Display Inc (廣輝電子), a second tier flat-screen maker, rose 6.8 percent to NT$25, while AU Optronics Corp (友達光電), the nation's top panel producer, gained 4.1 percent to NT$63.
Tseng said investors are hopeful the panel makers will deliver solid first-quarter earnings.
Memory-chip stocks extended the previous session's gains on higher product prices. Nanya Technology Corp (
However, the country's two largest chipmakers fell. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) fell 2.4 percent to NT$60, while rival United Microelectronics Corp (聯電) lost 2.3 percent to NT$29.9.
"At a time like this, the market has almost all it takes to stage a bigger rally -- excess funds and improving fundamentals -- but unfortunately, confidence premium is so thin that people would refrain from chasing the heavyweights higher," Tseng said.
Most investors will remain sidelined until the dispute over the presidential election result ends, analysts said.
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