Taiwan: Stocks rise slightly in cautious trade ahead of China data

[TAIPEI] Taiwan stocks rose slightly on Wednesday amid caution ahead of the release of fresh economic data in China.

China, a key trading partner for Taiwan, is expected to post its weakest growth since the global financial crisis, which together with a stock market rout raises pressure on authorities to do more to stir the economy after a run of stimulus steps has had little impact.

The main TAIEX index was up 0.5 per cent at 9,088.92 as of 0117 GMT, after closing higher 0.1 per cent in the previous session.

The electronics subindex rose 0.5 per cent, while the financials subindex gained 0.8 per cent.

The semiconductor subindex was up 0.2 per cent.

Inotera Memories was higher 0.4 per cent, after closing limit up 10 per cent in the previous session on the reported offer by China's state-backed Tsinghua Unigroup Ltd to buy Micron Technology, one of the largest shareholders in the Taiwanese memory chipmaker.

The Taiwan dollar firmed T$0.279 to T$31.023 per US dollar.

REUTERS