Taiwan: Stocks rise, taking cues from overseas markets

[TAIWAN] Taiwan stocks rose on Tuesday, mainly taking cues from overseas markets, but continued their choppy trading as investors await fresh economic data.

The main Taiex index was up 0.6 per cent at 9,773.76 as of 0142 GMT, after closing almost flat in the previous session.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was little changed in early trade, while the Nasdaq climbed 1.2 per cent to a record high overnight and the Dow and the S&P both gained 1.1 per cent.

In Taiwan, the electronics subindex rose 0.6 per cent, while the financials subindex gained 1.0 per cent.

Taiwan will release its preliminary gross domestic product data for the first quarter on Friday, which is likely to show sustained annual growth on the back of solid exports in the first three months of the year.

Industrial output, driven in large part by manufacturing of exported goods, rose 3.22 per cent in March from a year earlier, and expanded 5.14 per cent in the first quarter, data released on Monday showed.

Among actively traded stocks, big-cap contract chipmaker TSMC rose 0.3 per cent, while Asia Optical, which makes optical lens and digital video disk parts, gained nearly 5 per cent.

The Taiwan dollar firmed NT$0.054 to NT$30.218 per US dollar.

REUTERS