Taiwan stocks staged a rebound on Friday from their lowest level since June, with fresh gains on Wall Street encouraging investors to hunt tech bargains like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC).
The main TAIEX share index ended up 0.44 percent at 6,136.55 points, recouping all the ground it lost on Thursday. But the index gave up 0.4 percent this week, marking its third straight week of losses.
Turnover was soft at T$62.95 billion ($1.94 billion). "Although the market fell in the past three days, some people have used the weakness to buy so we don't have to be pessimistic on the market," said Alex Huang, vice president at Barrios International Securities.
Sentiment has been cautious recently due to concerns over high oil prices and more earnings reports from Taiwan companies.
"We don't dare say there will be a lot of upside for next week after today's rebound, but we can say the recent correction has come to an end," Huang said, adding that the TAIEX could test as high as 6,300 next week.
TSMC, the world's top contract chip maker and the market's most heavily weighted stock, gained 1.93 percent to T$52.80 after its Drs edged up 0.24 percent on Thursday.
Memory chipmakers also gained ground, with promos Tech rising 0.88 percent to T$11.45 and Inbound up 2.35 percent at T$10.90. The electronics sub-index rose 0.50 percent, taking heart from a 0.26 percent rise on the US Nasdaq on Thursday.
The financial sector added 0.48 percent. On a sour note, however, second-tier display screen maker Quanta Display Inc slumped the daily 7 percent limit to T$12.60 on fears that the company would report worse-than-expected second quarter earnings by end-August.
Larger rival AU Optronics Corp was off 1.16 percent at T$51.20. However, AU has been upbeat on panel prices and shipments in the third quarter. The over-the-counter market's TAISDAQ index gained 0.57 percent to 123.42 and September TAIEX index futures edged up 0.39 percent to 6,150.