By Jess Macy Yu
TAIPEI (Reuters) - Asian tech shares rallied on Wednesday on the back of Apple's robust earnings, with hopes the iPhone maker's fortunes will help boost sales of the region's hardware component suppliers ahead of the new iPhone launch.
On Tuesday, Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) delivered surprisingly strong fiscal third-quarter earnings and signaled that its upcoming 10th anniversary iPhone lineup is on schedule. The news drove its stock up 6 percent to a record high in after-hours trading.
In Taiwan, camera lens-maker Largan Precision rose to an all-time high of T$5,810.00 ($192.20), and was last up 4.8 percent at T$5,765.00.
Apple supplier Foxconn, formally known as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co, saw its shares hit a three-week high of T$119.50. Shares of the world's largest contract electronics manufacturer were last up 1.7 percent at T$118.50.
Catcher Technology, a metal casings and component manufacturer for electronic products, saw its shares rise to a 2-week high of T$378.50. It was last up 2.7 percent at T$375.00.
Chip designer Mediatek, which supplies system-on-chip solutions for wireless communications and digital multimedia solutions, also saw its shares rise as much as 3.6 pct to its highest since Nov 5, 2015.
The tech gains outpaced the overall stock benchmark, with Taiwan shares rising 0.80 percent to 10,519.27 points as of 0553 GMT. The semiconductor subindex rose 1.4 percent and the electronics subindex gained 1.3 percent.
South Korean and Japanese component suppliers also reflected some of Apple's luster.
South Korea's LG Innotek, which supplies iPhone parts such as the dual camera, jumped over 10.7 percent while the sub-index for techs rose more than 1 percent..
In Japan, shares of Apple suppliers surged. Murata Manufacturing gained 4.9 percent, Taiyo Yuden rose 4.4 percent and TDK Corp added 2.8 percent.
The MSCI tech index for Asia climbed 0.9 percent to highs not seen since early 2000, bringing its gains for the year to nearly 40 percent.
($1 = 30.2290 Taiwan dollars)