Soft Start Predicted For Taiwan Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market has tracked higher in two of three trading days since the end of the three-day losing streak in which it had slipped more than 70 points or 0.5 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now rests just above the 15,550-point plateau although it's expected to turn lower again on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to lower on renewed concerns over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets are tipped to follow the latter lead.

The TSE finished modestly higher on Thursday following gains from the financial shares, technology stocks and plastics.

For the day, the index gained 117.61 points or 0.76 percent to finish at 15,550.50 after trading between 15,474.46 and 15,585.48.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial perked 0.23 percent, while CTBC Financial collected 0.67 percent, Fubon Financial dipped 0.17 percent, First Financial gathered 0.38 percent, E Sun Financial was up 0.20 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company added 0.57 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation gained 0.40 percent, Hon Hai Precision advanced 0.98 percent, Largan Precision skidded 1.12 percent, Catcher Technology improved 0.53 percent, MediaTek rose 0.14 percent, Delta Electronics rallied 2.05 percent, Novatek Microelectronics climbed 1.01 percent, Formosa Plastics increased 0.11 percent, Nan Ya Plastics rallied 0.94 percent, Asia Cement strengthened 0.95 percent, Taiwan Cement eased 0.13 percent and Mega Financial was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is broadly negative as the major averages opened sharply lower on Thursday, pared the losses midday but then slumped again to finish near session lows.

The Dow plunged 431.20 points or 1.26 percent to finish at 33,696.85, while the NASDAQ tumbled 214.76 points or 1.78 percent to close at 11,855.83 and the S&P 500 dropped 57.19 points or 1.38 percent to end at 4,090.41.

The steep drop on Wall Street followed the Labor Department report showing a bigger than expected increase in producer prices, leading to renewed concerns about the outlook for interest rates.

A separate Labor Department report showed first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits unexpectedly edged slightly lower last week.

Oil futures settled lower on Thursday, extending losses to a third straight session on recent data showing a surge in U.S. crude inventories last week. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for March ended down $0.10 at $78.49 a barrel.

Closer to home, Taiwan will see January data for wholesale prices later today; in December, prices were up 7.14 percent on month.