Taiwan stocks end at near 19-mth high on financials
(Updates closing indices, adds comment)
Friday April 19, 2:00 PM
sg.biz.yahoo.com
TAIPEI, April 19 (Reuters) - Taiwan stocks closed up almost one percent on Friday flirting with a 19-month high, led by financial stocks as banks' released aggressive plans to write off bad debt.
The banking and insurance sub-index <.TFNI> jumped 5.25 percent, with Chang Hwa Bank <2801.TW>, one of Taiwan's five largest commercial banks, rising the seven percent trading limit at T$20.00.
Investors believe "that fundamentals in the financial sector are going to improve as efforts by banks to write off bad loans are seen bringing transparency to their finances," said Hsu Heng-yuan, manager of Fortune Securities' proprietary trading department.
Lifted by banking shares' gains, the benchmark TAIEX <.TWII> stock index closed up 60.91 points or 0.95 percent at 6,448.12, the highest close since September 28, 2000, on active turnover of T$122.53 billion.
As of Friday, the index has gained 87.1 percent since a nine-year low in early October.
The market got a further boost from foreign investors, who bought a hefty net of T$10.08 billion in Taiwan stocks on Thursday, taking their total net buying over the last six sessions to T$34.17 billion.
Among the most active stocks, Hua Nan Financial Holdings Co |
