Higher Open Anticipated For Taiwan Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market has finished lower in consecutive trading days, slumping more than 420 points or 2.9 percent along the way. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now rests just above the 14,670-point plateau although it's due for support on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed, with bargain hunting offset by ongoing concerns over the outlook for the global economy. The European markets were sharply higher and the U.S. bourses were sharply lower and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The TSE finished modestly lower on Friday following losses from the financial shares, technology stocks and cement and plastics companies.

For the day, the index dropped 128.86 points or 0.87 percent to finish at 14,673.04 after trading between 14,673.04 and 14,817.40.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company both declined 1.12 percent, while Mega Financial fell 0.43 percent, CTBC Financial shed 0.65 percent, Fubon Financial dropped 0.88 percent, First Financial lost 0.57 percent, E Sun Financial eased 0.18 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation rose 0.12 percent, Largan Precision improved 0.78 percent, Catcher Technology retreated 1.36 percent, MediaTek plunged 4.32 percent, Delta Electronics stumbled 1.35 percent, Formosa Plastics slumped 1.33 percent, Nan Ya Plastics weakened 1.18 percent, Asia Cement dipped 0.12 percent, Taiwan Cement sank 1.03 percent and Hon Hai Precision was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is broadly negative as the major averages opened higher on Friday but tumbled in afternoon trade to finish deep in the red.

The Dow plummeted 337.98 points or 1.07 percent to finish at 31,318.44, while the NASDAQ tumbled 154.26 points or 1.31 percent to close at 11,630.86 and the S&P 500 sank 42.59 points or 1.07 percent to end at 3,924.26.

The volatility on Wall Street followed the release of a closely watched Labor Department report showing U.S. employment increased roughly in line with estimates in August.

Amid recent concerns about the outlook for interest rates, the jobs data was described as a goldilocks report by some economists, coming in neither too hot nor too cold.

A separate report from the Commerce Department unexpectedly showed a sharp pullback in new orders for U.S. manufactured goods in July.

Crude oil prices ticked higher Friday on rising prospects for a reduction in output from OPEC and allies. But prices were down for the week amid worries about outlook for energy demand due to concerns about slowing global growth. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for September rose $0.26 or 0.3 percent at $86.87 a barrel; they were down 6.7 percent in the week.