Rally May Stall For Taiwan Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market has moved higher in two straight sessions, advancing more than 820 points or 2.5 percent along the way. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just above the 31,630-point plateau although it may run out of steam on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is negative thanks to ongoing geopolitical concerns. The European markets were down and the U.S. markets were closed and the Asian bourses are also likely to open under water.

The TSE finished modestly higher on Monday following gains from the plastics companies and mixed performances from the financial shares and technology stocks.

For the day, the index collected 230.59 points or 0.73 percent to finish at 31,639.29 after trading between 31,285.53 and 31,827.39.

Among the actives, Mega Financial dropped 0.86 percent, while First Financial dipped 0.17 percent, E Sun Financial collected 1.07 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company climbed 1.15 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation surged 6.84 percent, Hon Hai Precision stumbled 2.13 percent, Largan Precision improved 0.82 percent, Catcher Technology sank 0.71 percent, MediaTek slumped 1.33 percent, Delta Electronics shed 0.44 percent, Novatek Microelectronics rallied 2.25 percent, Formosa Plastics jumped 1.63 percent, Nan Ya Plastics skyrocketed 7.59 percent and Asia Cement, Cathay Financial, CTBC Financial and Fubon Financial were unchanged.

The U.S. markets were closed on Monday for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, while the European markets spent the entire session in the red amid rising geopolitical tensions after U.S. President Donald Trump doubled down on his plan to acquire Greenland.

Trump said NATO had warned Denmark for years about the "Russian threat" to Greenland and claimed Copenhagen had failed to act. "Now it is time, and it will be done!!!" Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform ahead of this week's World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos.

Also weighing on stocks was Trump's announcement of a 10 percent tariff on several EU countries from next month, which raises the tariff on all imports to the U.S. to 25 percent.

Reports suggest that the EU is considering a retaliatory move that would place tariffs on 93 billion euros of U.S. goods or restrict U.S. firms' access to its internal market.

Closer to home, Taiwan will see December data for export orders later today; in November, orders surged 39.5 percent on year.