Additional Support Tipped For Taiwan Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market has finished higher in two straight sessions, gathering more than 90 points or 0.6 percent along the way. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now rests just beneath the 15,600-point plateau and it's expected to extend its gains on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is positive on optimism over inflation, demand and interest rates. The European and U.S. markets were up and the Asian bourses are expected to open in similar fashion.

The TSE finished barely higher on Thursday following mixed performances from the financial shares and the technology stocks.

For the day, the index picked up 0.23 points or 0.00 percent to finish at 15,598.72 after trading between 15,492.37 and 15,618.06.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial gained 0.58 percent, while Mega Financial plunged 2.23 percent, CTBC Financial lost 0.66 percent, Fubon Financial collected 0.68 percent, First Financial slumped 1.13 percent, E Sun Financial fell 0.40 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company shed 0.57 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation skidded 1.17 percent, Hon Hai Precision added 0.49 percent, Largan Precision rallied 2.08 percent, Catcher Technology strengthened 1.61 percent, MediaTek tanked 2.02 percent, Novatek Microelectronics retreated 1.44 percent, Nan Ya Plastics improved 0.54 percent, Asia Cement was up 0.23 percent, Taiwan Cement perked 0.26 percent and Delta Electronics and Formosa Plastics were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is upbeat as the major averages opened mixed but trended steadily upward throughout the session, with all finishing firmly in the green.

The Dow surged 341.75 points or 1.05 percent to finish at 33,003.57, while the NASDAQ advanced 83.50 points or 0.73 percent to end at 11,462.98 and the S&P 500 gained 29.96 points or 0.76 percent to close at 3,981.35.

The surge by the Dow reflected a spike by shares of Salesforce (CRM), with the cloud-based software company soaring 11.5 percent on better than expected Q4 results and upbeat guidance.

The markets also rebounded on comments from Atlanta Federal Reserve President Raphael Bostic, who said he strongly favors raising interest rates in only quarter-point increments.

Traders largely shrugged off a continue surge in treasury yields, which followed the release of a Labor Department report unexpectedly showing a modest decline in initial jobless claims last week.

Crude oil prices climbed higher on Thursday, extending gains from the previous session as optimism about higher demand from China outweighed concerns about inflation and interest rate hikes. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for April settled at $78.16 a barrel, gaining $0.47 or 0.6 percent.