Local bourse closes up 17.35 points at 7,960.88

The high-tech sector helped sustain the gains on the broader market, while the financial sector suffered profit-taking pressure, retreating after showing gains early in the session, they said.

The weighted index closed up 17.35 points, or 0.21 percent, at 7,960.88, after fluctuating between 7,946.09 and 7,974.40, on turnover of NT$80.09 billion.

The market opened up 0.39 percent to the day's high on follow-through buying from a day earlier as the electronics sector continued on an upward trend.

After the index faced technical resistance as it approached the 8,000-point level, however, profit-taking emerged to drag down select financial stocks and cap the gains at the end of the session.

Separately, companies within the touch screen supply chain surged yesterday on hopes demands will increase this year, dealers said.

Among those companies, TPK Holding, Young Fast and JTouch rose 2.4 percent, seven percent and 6.04 percent, respectively, to NT$554, NT$57 and NT$26.35.

According to foreign investors, demands are increasing as a large quantity of notebooks driven by the Windows 8 operating system use touch screens.

Taiwan firms are expected to keep the proportion of touch screen notebooks at 35 to 40 percent of the total, they said.

Overall, the global penetration rate of touch screen notebooks is expected to fall between 15 and 20 percent this year, experts said.

With rising demands for touch screens, related companies such as TPK, Young Fast and JTouch have all received strong orders. Even JTouch, which posted a loss during the first half of last year, posted January sales of NT$668 million, a rise of 57.5 percent month-on-month and 94.7 percent year-on-year.

Experts are also upbeat about TPK, which has also seen its sales at a high.

According to experts, a shortage of touch screens is possible during the first half, given the strong demand. Yet, with companies expanding their capacity to boost production, whether a glut and a subsequent price decline will be seen in the second half remains to be seen, they said.

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