Taiwan's share prices closed higher Monday on the back of hopes that a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on cross-Taiwan Strait financial supervision will be signed in the near future. The weighted index, the market's key barometer, gained 73.65 points, or 0.98 percent, to close at 7,536.70. The local bourse opened at 7,562.59 and fluctuated between 7,562.59 and 7,512.50 during the day's trading session. A total of 2.95 billion shares changed hands on market turnover of NT$76.7 billion (US$2.37 billion). As a result of Vice Premier Eric Liluan Chu's remarks Nov. 6 that new developments on a cross-strait financial MOU would come in the next few days, banking and financial shares led the rise in a rallying market, moving up the most at 2.65 percent among all the eight major stock categories. Plastics and chemicals rose 1.53 percent, cement stocks were up 1.16 percent, textile shares gained 0.73 percent, paper and pulp issues increased 0.62 percent, construction shares jumped 0.45 percent, machinery and electronics shares added 0.38 percent and foodstuff issues advanced 0.02 percent. Gainers outnumbered losers 1,249 to 1,218, with 232 stocks remaining unchanged. Foreign institutional investors were net buyers of NT$5.80 billion-worth of shares. 