Shares ended slightly higher yesterday, led by chipmakers and flat-panel makers, following modest gains in the US market, analysts said.
The TAIEX finished 17.47 points, or 0.3 percent, higher at 5,934.60 in dealings valued at NT$56.1 billion (US$1.79 billion).
Decliners outnumbered advancers 472 to 349, while 197 issues ended the day unchanged.
"The index ended higher after spending much of the session in negative territory, indicating investors aren't convinced of a better tech outlook," said Margaret Pan, who is a senior vice president at Capital Securities (群益證券).
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.2 percent overnight, while the tech-laden NASDAQ Composite Index gained 0.5 percent.
Shares in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), the world's largest contract chipmaker, rose 1.7 percent to NT$54.5, recovering some of their 2 percent decline from Wednesday.
Makers of liquid-crystal-display panels rose after a report in the business daily Commercial Times said AU Optronics Corp (友達光電) successfully test-produced 94cm (37-inch) flat panels.
The report also said AU Optronics, the world's third-largest LCD maker, will more than double its 32-inch flat-panel shipments this month from April.
AU Optronics finished 1.3 percent higher at NT$52.8. However, memory chipmakers fell after Korea's Samsung Electronics said it expects demand and supply for DRAM chips to be in balance in the second half of the year in a slightly more conservative view than that of many analysts.
Powerchip Semiconductor Corp (力晶半導體), Taiwan's largest DRAM maker, ended down 2 percent at NT$24.5 after sliding as much as 4 percent yesterday.
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