Taiwan stocks ended 0.34 percent higher on Monday, led by High Tech Computer and other high-priced shares, amid optimism stronger demand will boost their sales in February.
The benchmark TAIEX finished up 22.12 points at 6,575.78, after taking off in the last two hours of the session. The heavyweight electronics sub-index was the third-largest contributor of the main index's rise, jumping 0.67 percent.
"There are lots of hopes that high-priced shares will extend their solid revenue momentum in February, typically a slow month," said Kevin Yang, a vice president of International Securities Investment Trust with T$90 billion ($2.77 billion) client assets under management.
"But these shares may have been overshooting, rising too much, too fast to justify their fundamentals," Yang warned.
So far in March, HTC has soared 11.1 percent in four sessions, while the main stock index has managed a 0.2 percent rise.
All companies are required to announce their February sales this week. High-priced tech stocks rallied. Smartphone maker High Tech, whose clients include Cingular Wireless and DoCoMo, surged by the daily 7 perent limit to T$786 and topped the most active list by turnover.
Catcher Technology, which makes mobile phone and notebook PC cases, jumped 7 percent to T$296.50. Largan Precision, one of the world's biggest makers of lenses used in camera phones, rose 6.8 percent to T$662.
Bucking the rally, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co and some other chip-related shares declined and were among the 10 most actively traded issues.
They slid after Intel Corp warned on Friday the first-quarter revenue would miss its earlier expectation due to weaker-than-expected demand and a slight loss of market share.
TSMC, the world's top contract chip maker, was off 1.46 percent at T$60.90. Chip packaging firm Siliconware Precision Industries fell 1.33 percent to T$40.90.
Chinatrust Financial, Taiwan's sixth-largest financial holding firm, ended 0.57 percent lower at T$26.35. Bigger competitor Mega Financial fell 0.21 percent to T$23.95, compared with a 0.26 percent slide of the underlying financial sub-index.
Chinatrust's Chief Financial Officer Perry Chang told Reuters on Friday that Chinatrust and its affiliates had accumulated their holding in state-run Mega Financial Holding in less than a month.
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