Led by chipmakers,stock prices bounce back to end higher

Shares ended slightly higher yesterday, as some technology shares bounced back from early declines following Wall Street's weakness Friday.

The TAIEX finished up 14.85 points, or 0.3 percent, at 5,775.99 in dealings valued at NT$73.20 billion(US$2.15 billion). Index futures rose 0.3 percent to 5,780. Decliners outnumbered advancers 362 to 299, while 195 issues ended the day unchanged.

"The market should be done reflecting Intel's negative mid-quarter update by now, and get a boost from other Asian bourses," said Andrew Teng, a manager at Taiwan International Securities. Intel cut its third-quarter sales forecast after US markets closed Thursday, confirming market concerns about weakening demand for technology products.

Chipmakers led yesterday's modest advance, with United Microelectronics Corp (聯電), the world's second-largest contract chipmaker, up 0.5 percent at NT$21.70 after a 5.9 percent drop Friday.

Powerchip Semiconductor Corp (力晶半導體), Taiwan's largest maker of dynamic random access memory chips, recouped its morning losses to end 0.8 percent higher at NT$24.4.

ProMOS Technologies Inc (茂德科技), Taiwan's second-largest memory-chip maker, shed 95 cents, the daily 7 percent limit, to NT$13.15. Mosel Vitelic Inc (茂矽電子), a memory-chip maker, also was limit down to NT$3.54.

The two companies said in separate statements to the Taiwan Stock Exchange that Hu Hung-chiu (胡洪九), the chairman of Mosel and the former head of ProMOS, is under investigation by government regulators for allegedly misusing funds.