Taiwan Bourse May Find Traction On Monday

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market has finished lower in three straight sessions, stumbling almost 130 points or 1.8 percent along the way. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just beneath the 17,290-point plateau although it figures to stop the bleeding on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is cautiously optimistic on positive momentum regarding the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were up 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 financials and cement companies, while the technology and plastic sectors were mixed.

For the day, the index dipped 7.18 points or 0.04 percent to finish at 17,287.42 after trading between 17,268.38 and 17,336.13.

Among the actives, Mega Financial and Catcher Technology both slid 0.50 percent, while CTBC Financial dipped 0.37 percent, Fubon Financial declined 0.62 percent, E Sun Financial eased 0.20 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company shed 0.52 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation fell 0.40 percent, Largan Precision lost 0.66 percent, MediaTek jumped 1.61 percent, Delta Electronics rallied 1.28 percent, Novatek Microelectronics improved 0.81 percent, Formosa Plastics advanced 0.87 percent, Nan Ya Plastics slumped 0.44 percent, Asia Cement was down 0.24 percent, Taiwan Cement sank 0.74 percent, China Steel added 0.39 percent and Hon Hai Precision, Cathay Financial and First Financial were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street varies widely as the Dow opened higher on Friday and stayed that way, the NASDAQ opened lower and stayed that way and the S&P bounced back and forth across the line all day and finished barely higher.

The Dow gained 117.15 points or 0.33 percent to finish at 35,390.15, while the NASDAQ dipped 15.05 points or 0.11 percent to close at 14,250.85 and the S&P 500 perked 2.72 points or 0.06 percent to end at 4,559.34.

For the holiday-interrupted week, the Dow rose 1.3 percent, while the S&P 500 advanced 1.0 percent and the NASDAQ climbed 0.9 percent.

The choppy action on Wall Street came as many traders remained away from their desks following Thursday's holiday, with the markets closing three hours earlier than usual.

A lack of major U.S. economic data also kept some traders on the sidelines ahead of this week's reports on new home sales, consumer confidence, pending home sales and manufacturing activity.

Oil prices fell sharply Friday, with traders waiting on a crucial OPEC meeting this week as oil producers struggling to come to a consensus on production levels. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for January ended lower by $1.56 or 2 percent at $75.54 a barrel.