Little Movement Anticipated For Taiwan Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market on Monday snapped the two-day winning streak in which it had advanced more than 130 points or 0.7 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now rests just beneath the 17,150-point plateau and it's looking at a fairly flat lead for Tuesday's trade.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is cautiously optimistic amidst a lack of major catalysts. The European markets were mixed and little changed and the U.S. bourses saw mild upside, and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The TSE finished modestly lower on Monday following mixed performances from the financial shares, technology stocks and cement companies. For the day, the index dropped 147.50 points or 0.85 percent to finish at 17,145.43 after trading between 17,081.48 and 17,463.76.

Among the actives, Mega Financial collected 0.50 percent, while CTBC Financial shed 0.38 percent, First Financial advanced 0.87 percent, Fubon Financial perked 0.15 percent, E Sun Financial lost 0.39 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company fell 0.35 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation eased 0.11 percent, Hon Hai Precision dropped 0.91 percent, Largan Precision rose 0.23 percent, Catcher Technology sank 0.86 percent, MediaTek surged 4.86 percent, Delta Electronics dipped 0.27 percent, Novatek Microelectronics jumped 1.80 percent, Formosa Plastics was up 0.24 percent, Nan Ya Plastics gained 0.29 percent, Asia Cement added 0.50 percent, Taiwan Cement was down 0.13 percent, China Steel slumped 0.89 percent and Cathay Financial was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street ends up slightly positive after a volatile session that saw the major averages bounce back and forth across the unchanged line throughout the day. The Dow climbed 100.57 points or 0.28 percent to finish at 35,559.86, while the NASDAQ added 29.37 points or 0.21 percent to close at 14,346.02 and the S&P 500 rose 6.76 points or 0.15 percent to end at 4,588.99.

Traders seemed reluctant to make significant moves as they await the release of key economic data in the coming days, including the closely watched monthly jobs report on Friday.

In U.S. economic news, MNI Indicators released a report showing Chicago-area business activity contracted at a slightly slower rate in the month of July.

Crude oil prices climbed higher on Monday and the oil futures contract posted the biggest monthly gain in over a year amid signs of tight supply and optimism over increased demand in the U.S. and China. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for September ended higher by $1.22 or 1.5 percent at $81.80 a barrel. WTI crude futures gained 16 percent in July.