Continued Support Called For Taiwan Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market has finished higher in two of three trading days since the end of the two-day slide in which it had stumbled almost 150 points or 1.1 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now rests just above the 15,000-point plateau and it's tipped to open in the green again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat on optimism over corporate earnings, plus support from the energy and technology sectors. The European and U.S. markets were solidly higher and the Asian bourses are tipped to open in similar fashion.

The TSE finished modestly higher on Friday as gains from the technology, cement and plastic stocks were capped by weakness from the financial sector.

For the day, the index climbed 108.17 points or 0.73 percent to finish at 15,000.07 after trading between 14,929.49 and 15,035.27.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial shed 0.66 percent, while Mega Financial lost 0.56 percent, CTBC Financial skidded 1.08 percent, Fubon Financial fell 0.36 percent, First Financial advanced 0.93 percent, E Sun Financial slid 0.54 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company jumped 1.60 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation soared 3.48 percent, Hon Hai Precision added 0.46 percent, Largan Precision surged 5.29 percent, MediaTek rose 0.15 percent, Delta Electronics retreated 1.53 percent, Formosa Plastics perked 0.99 percent, Nan Ya Plastics climbed 1.05 percent, Asia Cement rallied 2.35 percent, Taiwan Cement strengthened 1.44 percent and Catcher Technology was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is positive as the major averages opened higher on Friday and accelerated as the day progressed, ending near session highs.

The Dow spiked 315.53 points or 0.97 percent to finish at 32,845.13, while the NASDAQ jumped 228.09 points or 1.88 percent to end at 12,390.69 and the S&P 500 gained 57.86 points or 1.42 percent to close at 4,130.29.

For the week, the NASDAQ spiked 4.7 percent, the S&P climbed 4.3 percent and the Dow gained 3.0 percent. The three-day rally also capped off a strong month for stocks, with the major averages recording their best monthly gains since 2020.

The continued strength on Wall Street reflected a positive reaction to the latest batch of earnings news from big-name companies like Amazon (AMZN) and tech giant Apple (AAPL) - although others like Intel (INTC) and Proctor & Gamble (PG) disappointed.

Crude oil prices rose sharply after the Energy Information Administration said U.S. crude inventories tumbled last week. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for September ended higher by $2.20 or 2.3 percent at $98.62 a barrel. WTI crude futures gained 4.1 percent in the week but fell 6.8 percent in the month.