TAIEX gains, led by Mega Financial and chipmakers

Stocks gained yesterday, led by Mega Financial Holding Co (兆豐金控), the nation's second-largest financial company by market value, after the lender said it expected profit to rise by a fifth this year.

"Financial companies are benefiting from an improved economy as robust business activities and consumer spending will spur demand for loans," said Liu Juming, a fund manager at Fuh-Wa Asset Management Co.

The TAIEX rose 10.28, or 0.2 percent, to 6,810.25. About six stocks gained for every five that declined. Taiwan Index futures due this month shed 0.2 percent to 6,824.

Mega Financial rose 3.1 percent to NT$23.50. The lender expects net income to rise to NT$21.9 billion (US$665 million) from NT$18.1 billion last year.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) climbed on a Chinese-language newspaper report it has asked the US government for permission to transfer old and US-made chip-making equipment to its first plant in China, citing Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Shih Yen-shiang (施顏祥).

The so-called Wasserman Agreement, signed by a group of Western nations including the US after World War II, restricts exports of technology with military applications to China and other communist countries.

TSMC rose 0.8 percent to NT$61.50.

Hua Nan Financial Holdings Co. (華南金控), the nation's seventh-largest financial company by market value, rose 2.3 percent to NT$65.50, after the company proposed a plan to pay NT$2 a share cash and stock dividends. The proposal requires its shareholders' approval.