Lower Open Called For Taiwan Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market has moved lower in three straight sessions, stumbling almost 675 points or 4.8 percent in that span. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just above the 21,600-point plateau and it's likely to open under water again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is weak on concerns over the health of the world economy. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian bourses are expected to open in similar fashion.

The TSE finished sharply lower on Friday following losses from the technology stocks and plastics companies, while the financials came in mixed.

For the day, the index slumped 348.91 points or 1.59 percent to finish at 21,602.89 after trading between 21,525.05 and 21,836.16.

Among the actives, Mega Financial collected 0.37 percent, while First Financial skidded 1.08 percent, Fubon Financial fell 0.32 percent, E Sun Financial slumped 1.17 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company shed 0.63 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation lost 0.56 percent, Hon Hai Precision plunged 4.04 percent, Largan Precision surrendered 3.04 percent, Catcher Technology retreated 1.16 percent, MediaTek weakened 1.35 percent, Delta Electronics cratered 3.95 percent, Novatek Microelectronics dipped 0.18 percent, Formosa Plastics stumbled 3.72 percent, Nan Ya Plastics crashed 3.43 percent, Asia Cement was down 0.32 percent and Cathay Financial and CTBC Financial were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is brutal as the major averages opened lower on Friday and only got worse as the day progressed, ending near session lows.

The Dow plummeted 715.80 points or 1.69 percent to end at 41,583.90, while the NASDAQ tumbled 481.01 points or 2.70 percent to close at 17.322.99 and the S&P 500 dropped 112.37 points or 1.97 percent to end at 5,580.94. For the week, the NASDAQ plunged 2.6 percent, while the S&P lost 1.5 percent and the Dow shed 1.0 percent.

The sell-off on Wall Street came amid concerns about the outlook for the economy following the latest data, including the Federal Reserve's preferred readings on inflation.

While the Commerce Department report showed consumer prices increased in line with economist estimates, core consumer prices rose by slightly more than expected.

Stocks saw further downside after the University of Michigan released revised data showing consumer sentiment deteriorated more than estimated in March.

Oil prices fell Friday, but the most active futures contract still posted a weekly gain amid prospects of tighter supplies following the U.S. sanctions on Iran and Venezuela. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for May settled at $69.36 a barrel, losing $0.56 or 0.8 percent. WTI crude futures gained 1.6 percent in the week.