TAIEX climbs to five-month high

Taiwan stocks rose, led by United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), as investors bet a recovery in demand for computers, mobile phones and other electronics will boost semiconductor sales.

The TAIEX rose 158.13, or 3.3 percent, to 4,924.56, its highest since June 21.

"I'm in favor of the Taiwan stock market and I continue to buy stocks there. There's positive news from the tech sector," said Lai Yui Ben, who helps manage US$120 million in global equities at Pointworth Asset Management Pte in Singapore. "Any weakness will be a good day to collect."

UMC, the second-biggest made-to-order chipmaker, topped the list of foreign institutional investors' net purchases Tuesday.

The company said its fourth-quarter loss may be lower than its earlier forecast, as sales are improving. Its rival Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) on Monday raised its full-year profit forecast by a fifth as orders rose faster than predicted.

Within the index, 341 stocks rose and 154 fell. Trading was worth NT$174.6 billion (US$5 billion), more than doubled an average of NT$62 billion in the past three months.

Companies that make made-to-order chips rose after Cisco Systems Inc said orders met expectations, sending the NASDAQ Composite Index to its biggest advance in a month. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index, a price weighted index of 16 companies involved in the design and production of chips, climbed 6.5 percent.

TSMC rose NT$5, or 6.4 percent, to NT$83.5 after the company raised its profit forecast for the full year by a fifth on rising sales of chips. UMC, which implied it will have a fourth-quarter loss of about NT$596 million based on its October full-year prediction of a loss of NT$3.2 billion, rose NT$3, or 6.9 percent, to NT$46.50.

Memory chipmakers gained on optimism memory chip prices will rise if Micron Technology Inc and Hynix Semiconductor Inc merge, alleviating an oversupply of chips and price competition.

The price of an 128Mb dynamic random access memory chip rose 0.7 percent to US$1.48 Tuesday, according to Dram Exchange, a market place for trading memory chips.

Winbond Electronics Corp (華邦電子), Taiwan's biggest computer-memory-chip maker by market value, rose NT$1, or 6.7 percent, to NT$15.90. Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技), the second biggest, rose NT$1.3, or 6.6 percent, to NT$21. Mosel Vitelic Inc (茂矽), the third biggest, rose NT$0.60, or 6.5 percent, to NT$9.80.

Chantek Electronics Co (華特電子) fell NT$0.04, or 6.4 percent, to NT$0.67. The semiconductor tester and packager Tuesday said it filed for court receivership after it couldn't service its NT$1.2 billion in debt.

MediaTek Inc (聯發科技) rose NT$30, or 6.9 percent, to NT$465, its highest since the stock first traded in July. Taiwan's second-largest chip designer boosted its full-year pretax profit forecast over half to NT$6.4 billion as costs fell and sales of high profit-margin products rose.

Silicon Integrated Systems Corp (矽統科技) rose NT$2.90, or 6.7 percent, to NT$46.40 after company Chairman Du Chun-yuan (杜俊元) said in an Economic Daily News report the second-largest chipset maker in Taiwan will "definitely" turn to a profit next year after posting a loss this year.