TAIPEI, March 16 (Reuters) - Taiwan stocks rose on Thursday, largely tracking regional gains after the U.S. Federal Reserve indicated it won't accelerate the pace of the rate hikes and stuck to its outlook.
As the Fed raised the target overnight interest rate by 25 basis points to a range of 0.75 percent to 1 percent, Asian investors sighed a breath of relief that the Fed stuck to its outlook instead for two more hikes this year and three more in 2018.
As of 0144 GMT, the main TAIEX index rose 0.91 percent to 9,828.79 points, after closing down 0.04 percent on Wednesday.
The index surpassed the 9,800 point benchmark which was the top of its range in the past month.
The majority of sub-indexes rose, led by the plastics and semiconductor indexes that gained 1.4 percent each.
Additionally, the electronics subindex was up 1.07 percent, while the financial subindex was up 0.05 percent.
Among actively traded shares, electronics manufacturer Pegatron that makes Apple Inc products, rose 2.06 percent despite posting a lower-than-expected 2016 4Q net profit earlier this week.
As the dollar lost broadly against Asian currencies, the Taiwan dollar hit a 21-month high since late May 2015, at 30.564 per U.S. dollar, after closing at 30.840 in the last session.
The Taiwan dollar softened a touch by midday, but was still trading T$0.190 higher at T$30.650 to the U.S. dollar.
(Reporting by Jess Macy Yu; Editing by Vyas Mohan)
