Taiwan Bourse May Extend Friday's Losses

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market on Friday halted the five-day winning streak in which it had surged more than 750 points or 3.8 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just above the 21,250-point plateau and it may take further damage on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is murky, with profit taking likely to cap any upside. The European markets were soft and the U.S. bourses were mixed and little changed and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The TSE finished slightly lower on Friday following losses from the plastics and mixed performances from the financial shares, technology stocks and cement companies.

For the day, the index slumped 45.79 points or 0.21 percent to finish at 21,258.47 after trading between 21,218.34 and 21,346.75.

Among the actives, Mega Financial perked 0.12 percent, while CTBC Financial rallied 1.60 percent, First Financial climbed 1.08 percent, Fubon Financial advanced 0.95 percent, E Sun Financial soared 2.47 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company sank 0.71 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation strengthened 1.34 percent, Hon Hai Precision dropped 0.87 percent, Largan Precision added 0.65 percent, Catcher Technology plummeted 5.38 percent, MediaTek tumbled 2.10 percent, Delta Electronics improved 0.78 percent, Novatek Microelectronics jumped 2.03 percent, Formosa Plastics eased 0.15 percent, Nan Ya Plastics retreated 1.57 percent, Asia Cement plunged 2.51 percent, Taiwan Cement gained 0.89 percent, China Steel lost 0.40 percent and Cathay Financial was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street offers little clarity as the major averages opened mixed and fairly flat and finished much the same.

The Dow climbed 134.19 points or 0.34 percent to finish at a record 40,003.59, while the NASDAQ slipped 12.33 points or 0.07 percent to close at 16,685.97 and the S&P 500 rose 6.17 points or 0.12 percent to end at 5,303.27.

For the week, the NASDAQ surged 2.1 percent, while the S&P 500 jumped 1.5 percent and the Dow shot up 1.2 percent.

The choppy trading on Wall Street came as traders seemed reluctant to make significant moves as they digest recent strength in the markets, which saw the major averages reach new record highs.

In economic news, the Conference Board noted a continued decrease by its reading on leading U.S. economic indicators in the month of April.

Oil prices rose on Friday amid easing inflation, data showing a drop in inventories, and hopes of interest rate cuts. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for June climbed to $80.06 a barrel, gaining $0.79 or more than 1 percent. WTI crude futures gained 2.3 percent in the week.

Closer to home, Taiwan will provide April data for export orders and Q1 numbers for current account later today. Export orders are expected to rise 4.5 percent on year, up from 1.2 percent in March. The current account surplus in the three months prior came in at $34.84 billion.