Taiwan stocks rose 0.4 percent on Tuesday to their highest close in more than a week, boosted by big technology exporters such as LCD maker AU Optronics Corp with bright earnings prospects. The main TAIEX shares index ended up 31.59 points at 8,167.07, extending a 2.4 percent rally the previous day.
On the Christmas Day session, turnover was thin at T$74.78 billion ($2.3 billion), down from T$81.94 billion the previous day. "I would say sentiment is still somewhat weak now because of political worries but if you have confidence in next year's growth, any market dips are buying opportunities," said Brent Lin, a fund manager at Capital Investment Trust.
Reflecting cheaper valuations, Taiwan's stock market is trading at a price/earnings ratio of about 12 times, lower than 13 to 14 times in South Korea and 19 times in Hong Kong, he said.
AU jumped 4.1 percent and smaller rival Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp rose 3.8 percent amid growing popularity of flat-screen TVs, helping to lift the electronics subindex 0.4 percent. Smartphone maker High Tech Computer Corp shot up 0.6 percent after the company said on Monday that it did not expect to see any impact from a shortage of parts on its business early next year.
Trading has been slow recently due to investor caution ahead of a legislative election in January and the presidential election in March. Another concern is the pending verdict on Friday by the Taiwan High Court in presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou's corruption case.
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