Mild Upside Seen For Taiwan Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market has alternated between positive and negative finishes through the last five trading days since the end of the two-day losing streak in which it had given up more than 640 points or 2.3 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just beneath the 27,950-point plateau and it may tick higher again on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat on optimism over the end of the U.S. government shutdown. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were mixed and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The TSE finished modestly higher on Wednesday following gains from the technology and plastics stocks, while the financial shares were mixed.

For the day, the index improved 162.14 points or 0.58 percent to finish at 27,947.09 after trading between 27,799.92 and 28,071.76.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial and E Sun Financial both perked 0.17 percent, while Mega Financial dipped 0.12 percent, First Financial slid 0.18 percent, Fubon Financial collected 0.77 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company added 0.68 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation shed 0.55 percent, Hon Hai Precision jumped 1.83 percent, Largan Precision advanced 0.90 percent, Catcher Technology strengthened 1.76 percent, MediaTek gained 0.40 percent, Delta Electronics lost 0.51 percent, Novatek Microelectronics rose 0.26 percent, Formosa Plastics soared 3.63 percent, Nan Ya Plastics skyrocketed 9.93 percent and Asia Cement and CTBC Financial were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is contradictory as the major averages opened higher on Wednesday but took different paths to finish mixed and little changed.

The Dow jumped 326.86 points or 0.68 percent to finish at 48,254.82, while the NASDAQ slipped 61.84 points or 0.26 percent to close at 23,406.46 and the S&P 500 rose 4.31 points or 0.06 percent to end at 6,850.92.

The continued advance by the Dow came amid strong gains by UnitedHealth (UNH), Goldman Sachs (GS) and Cisco Systems (CSCO). But continued decline by the tech-heavy NASDAQ reflected lingering valuation concerns.

Traders also kept an eye on developments in Washington, where the House of Representatives will vote on a bill ending the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.

After the Senate voted Monday to approve the bill extending funding for most agencies until January 30, the House is set to vote on the legislation within the next few hours.

Crude oil prices plummeted on Wednesday after OPEC's monthly report suggested that global supply now exceeds demand by about 500,000 barrels per day. West Texas Intermediate crude for December delivery was down $2.62 or 4.31 percent at $58.40 per barrel.