Lower Open Tipped For Taiwan Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market on Friday wrote a finish to the eight-day winning streak in which it had surged almost 4,600 points or 13.7 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just above the 36,800-point plateau and it's looking at another soft start again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is gloomy after the Strait of Hormuz was shut down again over the weekend. The European and U.S. markets were sharply higher on Friday, but the Asian bourses are now expected to open under pressure on Monday.

The TSE finished modestly lower on Friday following losses from the plastics and mixed performances from the financial shares and technology stocks.

For the day, the index dropped 327.66 points or 0.88 percent to finish at 36,804.34 after trading between 36,776.28 and 37,145.66.

Among the actives, Mega Financial skidded 1.13 percent, while CTBC Financial perked 0.16 percent, Fubon Financial collected 0.11 percent, E Sun Financial sank 0.76 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company tanked 2.64 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation surged 6.88 percent, Hon Hai Precision shed 0.48 percent, Largan Precision plummeted 7.62 percent, Catcher Technology skyrocketed 9.87 percent, MediaTek jumped 1.58 percent, Delta Electronics fell 0.27 percent, Novatek Microelectronics improved 0.73 percent, Formosa Plastics tumbled 2.02 percent, Nan Ya Plastics plunged 3.09 percent, Asia Cement added 0.56 percent and Cathay Financial and First Financial were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is strong as the major averages opened higher on Friday and remained firmly in the green throughout the trading day, ending at session highs.

The Dow jumped 868.71 points or 1.79 percent to finish at 49.447.43, while the NASDAQ rallied 365.78 points or 1.52 percent to end at 24,468.48 and the S&P 500 gained 84.78 points or 1.20 percent to close at 7,126.06.

For the week, the NASDAQ skyrocketed 6.8 percent, the S&P 500 soared 4.9 percent and the Dow spiked 3.2 percent.

The rally on Wall Street came following news that Iran has declared the Strait of Hormuz completely open to commercial traffic on the heels of the 10-day ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon.

The news of the temporary reopening of the strait led to a nosedive by the price of crude oil, easing supply-related concerns. West Texas Intermediate crude for May delivery was down $11.17 or 10.58 percent at $84.11 per barrel.

The strength on Wall Street may also have reflected optimism about the strength of corporate earnings ahead of the quarterly results from several big-name companies this week.