Taiwan: Stocks rise tracking regional shares as Fed maintains outlook

[TAIPEI] Taiwan stocks rose on Thursday, largely tracking regional gains after the US Federal Reserve indicated it won't accelerate the pace of the rate hikes and stuck to its outlook.

As the Fed raised the target overnight interest rate by 25 basis points to a range of 0.75 per cent to one per cent, Asian investors sighed a breath of relief that the Fed stuck to its outlook instead for two more hikes this year and three more in 2018.

As of 0144 GMT, the main Taiex index rose 0.91 per cent to 9,828.79 points, after closing down 0.04 per cent on Wednesday.

The index surpassed the 9,800 point benchmark which was the top of its range in the past month.

The majority of sub-indexes rose, led by the plastics and semiconductor indexes that gained 1.4 per cent each.

Additionally, the electronics subindex was up 1.07 per cent, while the financial subindex was up 0.05 per cent.

Among actively traded shares, electronics manufacturer Pegatron that makes Apple Inc products, rose 2.06 per cent despite posting a lower-than-expected 2016 4Q net profit earlier this week.

As the US dollar lost broadly against Asian currencies, the Taiwan dollar hit a 21-month high since late May 2015, at 30.564 per US dollar, after closing at 30.840 in the last session.

The Taiwan dollar softened a touch by midday, but was still trading NT$0.190 higher at NT$30.650 to the US dollar.

REUTERS