Taiwan stocks extend gains; led by financials

TAIPEI: Taiwan stocks extended gains by mid-session to as much as 1.2 percent on Monday, lifted by financial counters on expected government buying, according to fund managers.

Some fund managers expected the main TAIEX index to gain strength this week if Wall Street recovers on Monday after a few consecutive sessions of deep declines last week.

"There are no positive factors attributed to the rise of financials today; if they open up high, it's usually government buying," said Prudential Financial Securities Investment Trust's senior fund manager, Bevan Yeh.

At 0135 GMT, the TAIEX index was up 0.91 percent, or 66.75 points to 7,409.71, after opening flat.

Banking shares were among top gainers, jumping 1.6 percent, with Cathay Financial Holding rising 2.69 percent.

Electronics component counters were among the biggest laggards, down 0.49 percent.

Quanta rose 0.18 percent, underperforming the market on worries that Hewlett-Packard Inc's supply chain would be affected if the US firm sells its PC business.

Inventec Corp, who manufactures notebook PCs for HP, plunged 6.72 percent.

HP's rivals Acer and Asustek , however, rose 3.01 percent and 1.99 percent, respectively.

The Taiwan dollar gained 0.27 percent to T$28.999.

Taiwan's Economic Daily said on Monday that Taiwan's finance ministry met during the weekend and agreed to increase government support to maintain the stability of the Taiwan dollar.

Foreign investors were net sellers on Friday, bringing their total selling to T$201.962 billion this month.

Copyright Reuters, 2011