Taiwan stocks rally on eurozone hopes, banks lead

Analysts said market sentiment had improved after the selloff earlier this week, prompting bargain hunting by some investors amid hopes Europe's debt problems would be eventually worked out.

"If coordinated action on such a big scale did not work it would be the end of the world, which I don't think will happen," said Rex Chen, chief investment officer of BNP Paribas's fund joint venture with Taiwan Cooperative Bank .

"The global economy is in bad shape, but not as terrible as some expected," he said, adding the benchmark index would find support at 7,200 points.

At about 40 minutes into trade, the main TAIEX index had advanced 173.65 points to 7,557.62. Automobile , cement and banking shares all soared more than 3 percent.

Among the 10 most active issues by volume, contract chip maker TSMC , Hon Hai and Chinatrust Financial all added about 3 percent.

The Taiwan dollar gained by T$0.063 to trade at T$29.572.

Foreign investors were net buyers on Thursday, capping their total selling at T$50.9 billion this month.

Copyright Reuters, 2011