Taiwan stocks jump four percent

Taiwan's stocks jumped 4 percent and its currency hit a decade high on Monday, as investors hoped for better trade ties and less political tension with China after the opposition's resounding win in the presidential election.
The stock market's main TAIEX share index ended with a gain of 340.36 points, to 8,865.35, after soaring 6.15 percent at the open - its biggest intra-day percentage gain in more than seven years.
Some analysts predicted the stock market would punch through the 9,000 point mark after the victory by Nationalist Party (KMT) candidate Ma Ying-jeou, who favours closer trade ties and political dialogue with China, which considers self-ruled Taiwan its own territory.
Foreign investors were big buyers of Taiwan stocks on Monday, accumulating a total T$57.91 billion ($1.92 billion) worth of Taiwan shares, their second-biggest daily buying in history. The Taiwan dollar also jumped, ending at a 10-year closing high of T$30.229 against the US dollar, with daily trading volume hitting a record. The Taiwan dollar is up nearly 7 percent so far this year.
All sectors rose on Monday, with top air carrier China Airlines, top financial holding company Cathay Financial, and tourism, construction and China-related shares leading the market to its highest level in nearly five months.
Cathay Financial, the market's most active stock by turnover, surged by its daily 7 percent limit, sending the financial sub-index up 5.9 percent. China Air jumped 2.7 percent and Hon Hai Precision, a big investor in China, gained 5.4 percent.
All of those sectors could benefit from closer ties with China, which has already received about $100 billion in Taiwan investment in the last 20 years and is the favourite manufacturing destination for Taiwanese firms.
In the mainland markets, shares of Fujian Cement and other companies based in China's south-eastern province of Fujian, near Taiwan, also rose in active trade on Monday, defying a drop in Shanghai's benchmark index.
Despite turmoil in global markets, the TAIEX had managed a slight rise for the year before the Monday rally on optimism about the election, in contrast to the Dow Jones industrial average's fall of 6.8 percent.
In the longer term, more funds will flow into Taiwan as the KMT's dominance in the parliament and cabinet will make it easier for the government to push through its economic agenda after years of stalemate in a once-divided legislature.