Rally May Stall For Taiwan Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market has moved higher in five consecutive sessions, rallying more than 1,630 points or 6.4 percent along the way. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just above the 27,210-point plateau although it may run out of steam on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft, with profit taking expected especially among the technology shares. The European markets were flat and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The TSE finished sharply higher on Tuesday following gains from the financial shares, technology stocks and plastics companies.

For the day, the index surged 450.89 points or 1.68 percent to finish at 27,211.95 after trading between 27,017.08 and 27,301.42.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial perked 0.17 percent, while Mega Financial was up 0.12 percent, CTBC Financial gathered 0.16 percent, First Financial retreated 1.53 percent, Fubon Financial collected 0.46 percent, E Sun Financial rose 0.31 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company rallied 2.50 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation climbed 1.03 percent, Hon Hai Precision advanced 0.88 percent, Largan Precision surged 5.45 percent, Catcher Technology improved 1.10 percent, MediaTek added 0.38 percent, Delta Electronics soared 4.78 percent, Novatek Microelectronics jumped 1.55 percent, Formosa Plastics spiked 2.32 percent, Nan Ya Plastics skyrocketed 7.52 percent and Asia Cement was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is weak as the major averages opened slightly higher on Tuesday but quickly headed south and spent the balance of the day in the red, ending near session lows.

The Dow slumped 91.99 points or 0.20 percent to finish at 46,602.98, while the NASDAQ dropped 153.30 points or 0.67 percent to end at 22,788.36 and the S&P 500 sank 25.69 points or 0.38 percent to close at 6,714.59.

The pullback on Wall Street reflected profit taking following recent strength in the markets, which saw the S&P 500 close higher for seven straight sessions.

A slump by shares of Oracle (ORCL) also weighed on the markets following reports that raised questions about the profitability of its artificial intelligence rollout.

Lingering concerns about the economic impact of the ongoing U.S. government shutdown, which has led to the indefinite delay of U.S. economic data, including the Labor Department's closely watched monthly jobs report.

Crude oil prices crept slightly higher on Tuesday, despite forecasts of weakening oil demand. West Texas Intermediate crude for November delivery was up $0.02 or 0.03 percent at $61.71 per barrel.

Closer to home, Taiwan will see September figures for consumer prices later today; in August, overall inflation was up 0.12 percent on month and 1.6 percent on year.