Bargain Hunting May Boost Taiwan Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market has finished lower in three consecutive trading days, sinking more than 425 points or 3 percent along the way. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now rests just above the 14,550-point plateau although it's due for support on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat after days of selling as recession fears may already be priced in. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The TSE finished modestly lower on Thursday following losses from the technology stocks and mixed performances from the financials, cement companies and plastics.

For the day, the index lost 76.97 points or 0.53 percent to finish at 14,553.04 after trading between 14,464.20 and 14,634.16.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial declined 1.42 percent, while Mega Financial collected 0.48 percent, CTBC Financial skidded 1.08 percent, Fubon Financial tumbled 2.06 percent, First Financial added 0.57 percent, E Sun Financial climbed 1.02 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company sank 0.74 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation tanked 2.63 percent, Hon Hai Precision shed 0.49 percent, Largan Precision lost 0.66 percent, MediaTek retreated 1.54 percent, Novatek Electronics plunged 2.46 percent, Formosa Plastics dropped 0.91 percent, Nan Ya Plastics plummeted 2.53 percent, Asia Cement rose 0.24 percent, Taiwan Cement fell 0.45 percent and Delta Electronics was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is positive as the major averages opened higher on Thursday and remained in the green throughout the session.

The Dow jumped 183.56 points or 0.55 percent to finish at 33,781.48, while the NASDAQ rallied 123.45 points or 1.13 percent to end at 11,082.00 and the S&P 500 added 29.59 points or 0.75 percent to close at 3,963.51.

The strength on Wall Street came as traders picked up stocks at somewhat reduced levels following the sell-off seen to start the week, which reflected concerns about the outlook for interest rates and the economy.

Traders will be looking for signs of a slowdown in producer price inflation later today, as well as a reduction in inflation expectations amid concerns the Federal Reserve will need to push the economy into a prolonged recession in order to bring inflation down close to its 2 percent target.

The Labor Department reported that first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits edged slightly higher last week.

Crude oil showed a notable downturn over the course of the trading day on Thursday as traders remain concerned about the outlook for energy demand amid the possibility of a global recession. West Texas Intermediate for January delivery slid $0.55 or 0.8 percent to $71.46 a barrel.