Soft Start Anticipated For Taiwan Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market on Monday halted the three-day winning streak in which it had gathered more than 250 points or 1.7 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now rests just beneath the 14,940-point plateau and the losses may accelerate on Tuesday. The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed and flat, with support from the energy stocks likely offset by weakness from the technology companies. The European and U.S. markets were mixed to higher and the Asian bourses figure to follow that lead.

The TSE finished barely lower on Monday following mixed performances from the financial shares and the technology stocks.

For the day, the index fell 13.03 points or 0.09 percent to finish at 14,936.33 after trading between 14,851.37 and 14,968.23. Among the actives, Cathay Financial strengthened 1.22 percent, while Mega Financial declined 1.29 percent, CTBC Financial lost 0.22 percent, Fubon Financial improved 1.37 percent, First Financial advanced 0.97 percent, E Sun Financial collected 0.34 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company sank 0.70 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation plunged 4.59 percent, Hon Hai Precision jumped 1.42 percent, Largan Precision dipped 0.26 percent, MediaTek tanked 2.41 percent, Delta Electronics climbed 1.01 percent, Formosa Plastics surged 2.73 percent, Nan Ya Plastics rallied 1.39 percent, Asia Cement rose 0.11 percent, Taiwan Cement added 0.40 percent and Catcher Technology was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is cautiously optimistic as the major averages opened flat on Monday and then bounced up and down throughout the session before finishing mixed.

The Dow climbed 90.75 points or 0.28 percent to finish at 31,990.04, while the NASDAQ lost 51.45 points or 0.43 percent to close at 11,782.67 and the S&P 500 rose 5.14 points or 0.13 percent to end at 3,966.77.

Trading activity was somewhat subdued as traders look ahead to the Federal Reserve's monetary policy decision on Wednesday.

CME Group's FedWatch tool is currently indicating a 77.5 percent chance of a 75-basis point interest rate hike and a 22.5 percent chance of a 100-basis point rate hike.

Crude oil futures settled sharply higher on Monday as concerns about outlook for energy demand eased, while the dollar's weakness ahead of the upcoming Fed statement also supported crude oil prices. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for September ended higher by $2.00 or 2.1 percent at $96.70 a barrel.