TAIPEI: After eight consecutive days of losses, Taiwan's share prices rebounded sharply yesterday, with the weighted index, the market's key barometer, moving up 134.55 points, or 1.78 percent, to close at 7,694.58.

The local bourse opened at 7,630.16 points and fluctuated between 7,756.77 and 7,607.56. It had shed 796.86 points in the previous eight trading days.

A total of 3.93 billion shares changed hands on market turnover of NT$118.08 billion ($3.69 billion).

All eight major stock categories gained ground, with construction shares advancing the most at 2.8 percent.

Electronics and machinery issues moved up 2.1 percent, paper and pulp stocks increased 1.9 percent, and banking and financial issues gained 1.6 percent.

Cement stocks gained 1.5 percent, textile shares rose 1.4 percent, foodstuff issues rose 1.4 percent, and plastics and chemicals stocks grew 0.7 percent.

Gainers outnumbered losers 2,542 to 718, with 163 stocks remaining unchanged.

Foreign institutional investors and mainland qualified domestic institutional investors were top sellers of NT$7.18 billion-worth of shares, down from the previous day's NT$7.42 billion-worth of shares.

China Daily/CNA

(HK Edition 01/29/2010 page2)