Taiwan's share prices closed higher Friday, with the weighted index, the market's key barometer, rising 66.91 points, or 0.8 percent, to close at 8,356.89. The local bourse opened at 8,340.60 and traded between 8,380.23 and 8,325,82 during the session. A total of 5.64 billion shares changed hands on market turnover of NT$170 billion (US$5.35 billion). All eight major stock categories gained ground except for construction shares, which fell 0.1 percent. Textile stocks rose 1.8 percent, electronics and machinery issues and paper and pulp shares gained 1.1 percent each, and cement shares rose 0.9 percent. Banking and financial shares advanced 0.5 percent, plastics and chemicals stocks grew 0.3 percent, and foodstuff shares moved up 0.1 percent. Gainers outnumbered losers 2,009 to 1,205, with 280 stocks remaining unchanged. Foreign institutional investors were net buyers of NT$10.61 billion in shares. 