Taiwan Mask shares surged against a sharply falling market, a win for shareholders as the company swung back to profit and banked cash from selling a plant.

• The stock jumped as much as 8% on heavy volume, pushing above its half-year average price line.
• The company turned a profit in the first half of the year after a weak stretch.
• It finished selling its Zhunan plant and equipment to ASE's chip packaging arm SPIL for around NT$2.9 billion, with the money already collected.
• New 40-nanometer photomask work has passed customer testing and goes into mass production in the second half, with 28-nanometer testing due by year-end.
• The move stood out because Taiwan's main index was down nearly 1,000 points, with Japanese and Korean stocks also falling hard.

Outlook: Revenue is expected to grow quarter by quarter into year-end as large-size photomasks start contributing, though a broad regional selloff could still weigh on the share price.