Taiwan: Stocks rise on bargain hunting as financials recover

[TAIPEI] Taiwan stocks rose on Thursday on bargain hunting after recent lows, with shares in Mega Financial, the focus of a local probe by prosecutors, rising for the first time in five sessions.

As of 0153 GMT, the main Taiex index rose 0.5 per cent, to 9,060.28, after closing 0.2 per cent lower in the previous session.

The electronics subindex rose 0.7 per cent, while the financials subindex gained 0.9 per cent.

Among active counters, Mega Financial was up over one per cent.

After being hit by a rare fine in the US for anti-money laundering violations, local prosecutors earlier this week began their own investigation on whether the financial giant broke any local criminal laws.

The Taiwan dollar firmed T$0.017 to T$31.755 per US dollar.

REUTERS