Taiwan: Stocks rise in line with overseas markets

[TAIPEI] Taiwan stocks rose on Thursday, tracking Asian shares and overnight Wall Street gains, as US President Donald Trump's measured tone in his first speech to Congress encouraged investors.

The main Taiex index rose 0.6 per cent to 9,733.35 points as of 0142 GMT, after closing down 0.8 per cent on Wednesday.

The financial subindex gained 1.2 per cent, while the electronics subindex rose 0.6 per cent.

Among actively traded shares, Pegatron and Largan Precision, suppliers to Apple Inc, saw gains of more than one per cent.

The Taiwan dollar firmed by NT$0.025 against the US dollar to NT$30.735.

Taiwan's central bank governor told lawmakers on Thursday that the recent strong rally in the local currency was due to massive foreign fund inflows, but he declined to comment when asked whether the stronger local currency has to do with the central bank's fear of being labelled a currency manipulator by the United States.

REUTERS