Taiwan stocks ended firmer on Friday despite weak results from foreign and local computer heavyweights as investors picked up industrial shares with good interim earnings reports, such as plastics and transport shares.
The TAIEX share index added 0.41 percent, to close at 5,389.93, but has meandered in sluggish trade since bouncing from a one-year intrude low of 5,255 hit on Thursday last week.
Compel Electronics Inc, the world's second-largest contract manufacturer of laptop computers, fell the seven percent daily limit to T$29.30 in heavy trade after reporting weak quarterly profits and forecasting lower profit margins.
But with battered tech valuations already reflecting expectations of weaker demand after inventories began to pile higher in the second quarter, investors switched their focus to industrials with better results.
Oil refiner Formosa Petrochemical rose 0.93 percent to close at T$54.00 as crude oil prices hover near record highs, and plastics giant Nan Ya Plastics added 0.44 percent.
Turnover was lacklustre at T$45.5 billion, but that was up from T$34.8 billion on Thursday, the slowest day of trade since May last year, during Taiwan's outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome.
Disappointing results and forecasts from Hewlett-Packard Inc, which outsourcers much of its production to Taiwan also pressured local PC makers after knocking the tech-heavy NASDAQ composite index 1.68 percent lower.
Compal's top competitor, Quanta Computer Inc, slipped T$0.50, or 0.87 percent, to close at T$57.00. The over-the-counter TAISDAQ index closed unchanged at 106.53, while August TAIEX futures nudged higher with a gain of 0.15 percent, to close at 5,356.