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14:14 06Aug09 RTRS-Taiwan stocks rise as Fubon, UMC climb * Bank shares rise on hope of further warming in China ties * UMC jumps ahead of July sales report on Friday * First-half results will be in focus till end of Aug * Investors are worried China may shift its monetary policy (Updates indexes, adds quotes) By Joan Hsu TAIPEI, Aug 6 (Reuters) - Taiwan stocks closed 0.3 percent higher on Thursday in volatile trade, with financial shares such as Fubon Financial climbing after gains in their U.S. peers. The main TAIEX share index <.TWII> rose 20.41 points to 6,868.65, after climbing as much as 75 points during the session. The index had dropped 3 percent in the past two sessions. Fubon Financial <2881.tw>, Taiwan's No. 5 financial holding firm, rose 3.2 percent, while the banking and insurance sub-index <.TFNI> gained 1 percent. UMC <2303.tw> , the world's No.2 contract chip maker, ended up 3.75 percent. The company is set to report its July sales on Friday. "I expect the volatile trend to persist through the end of August, with investors eyeing first-half results," said Ernest Chiang, a fund manager at IBT Asset Management. "They know prices of some stocks did not reflect the earnings reports posted by companies lately, so they'll take a wait-and-see stance until the rest of the companies provide clearer guidance," he said. All Taiwan firms are asked to post their first-half results by end of this month. Chiang added that Taiwan stocks also tracked losses on Chinese stocks, which fell more than 3 percent earlier in the session as investors worried that a shift in China's monetary policy might affect market liquidity. That market recouped some of the losses in afternoon trade. "A change in direction in China's money policy weighed on Taiwan investors' sentiment," Chiang said. China's central bank said late on Wednesday in its monetary policy report for the second quarter that it would deploy a variety of tools to tweak monetary policy. [ID:ID:nPEK368445] Shares of smartphone HTC <2498.tw> rose 4.57 percent, recouping losses after falling nearly 20 percent in the past three sessions. China Unionpay is set to launch services in Taiwan on Friday, in the latest signs of warming ties across the Taiwan Straits. China Unionpay, controlled by the Chinese central bank, operates China's bank payment system and the national network linking up automatic teller machines around the country. LED maker lite-on Technology <2301.tw> rose 2.24 percent. The company has received an order for 140,000 traffic lights from the U.S. state of California, and the deal could boost the company's revenue from the sector to T$16 billion ($489 million) by 2011, a local newspaper reported. ----------------------TAIEX IN PERSPECTIVE------------------ Move on day 0.3 pct Close on day 6,868.65 2009 intraday high 7,142.63 2009 intraday low 4,164.19 All-time high 12,682.41 12 FEB 1990 -------------------------------------------------------------- ($1=T$32.7) For a table of foreign trading in Taiwan stocks, double-click on [ID:nTP170358] (Reporting by Joan Hsu; Editing by Ken Wills) ((If you have a query or comment on this story, send an email to news.feedback.asia@thomsonreuters.com)) ASIA-PACIFIC STOCK MARKETS: Pan-Asia......[STXNEWS/AS] Japan........[.T] S.Korea....[.KS] S.E. Asia............[.SO] Hong Kong...[.HK] Taiwan.....[.TW] Australia/NZ.........[.AX] India.......[.BO] China......[.SS] OTHER MARKETS: Wall Street...........[.N] Gold.........[GOL/] Currency..[FRX/] Eurostocks...........[.EU] Oil...........[O/R] JP bonds...[JP/] ADR Report..........[ADR/] LME metals..[MET/L] US bonds...[US/] Stocks News US...[STXNEWS/US] Stocks News Europe...[STXNEWS/EU] DIARIES & DATA: IPO diary & data Asia earnings diary [ASIA/EQTY] U.S. earnings diary [RESF/US] European diary [WEU/EQTY] Taiwan diary [TW/DIARY] Wall Street Week Ahead [.N/O] Eurostocks Week Ahead [.EU/O] World forecasts TOP NEWS: For top Asian company news, double click on: [nTOPEQA] U.S. company news [TOP/EQU] European company news [TOP/EQE] Forex news [TOP/FRX] Global Economy news [TOP/MACRO] Technology news [TOP/TECH] Telecoms news [TOP/TELCO] Media news [TOP/MEDIA] Banking news [TOP/FIN] Politics/General news [TOP/G] Asia Macro data A multimedia version of Reuters Top News is available at: http://topnews.session.rservices.com LIVE PRICES & DATA: World Stocks <0#.index> Currency rates Dow Jones/NASDAQ <.DJI> <.IXIC> Nikkei <.N225> FTSE 100 <.FTSE> Debt <0#usbmk=> Taiwan dollar LME price overview TAIWAN MARKET: Taiwan equity mkt
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