Chunghwa rises as stocks gain on MSCI's change

Stocks led by Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) and For-mosa Chemicals & Fibre Corp (台灣化纖), after Morgan Stanley Capital International Inc (MSCI) raised the nation's representation in its indexes yesterday.

"The MSCI weighting changes on Taiwan will kick in giving fund managers who track MSCI benchmarks reason to put more money into the market," said Maureen Lee, a fund manager at Jih Sun Securities Investment Trust Co (日盛投信).

The TAIEX rose 59.50, or 1 percent, to 5,844.76. The benchmark was little changed until the last minutes of trade. About six stocks declined for every five that gained. Futures due in December fell 0.02 percent to 5,809.

For the month, the index rose 2.4 percent. Earlier this month MSCI said it would increase Tai-wan's representation in its indexes to 75 percent from 55 percent after the close of markets yesterday in the first of two steps, giving full weight to the nation's stocks.

Chunghwa Telecom rose 2.4 percent to NT$64. Formosa Chemicals & Fibre gained 4.4 percent to NT$60. Flat-panel display maker AU Optronics Corp (友達光電) gained 1.4 percent to NT$42.30.

Separately, FTSE Group, which has indexes in all the world's major stock markets, said it created two groups of shares in Taiwan for the local stock exchange. FTSE started the Taiwan Mid-Cap Index and the Taiwan Technology Index to be used as the basis for derivative products, the group said in a statement on its Web site.