Taiwan Bourse May Hand Back Monday's Gains

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market found renewed support on Monday, one session after ending the three-day winning streak in which it had jumped almost 680 points or 3.2 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just above the 21,790-point plateau although it may head south again on Tuesday. The global forecast for the Asian markets is murky ahead of key upcoming talks between the United States and China. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were flat and the Asian markets figure to split the difference. The TSE finished modestly higher on Monday following gains from the financial shares, technology stocks and plastics companies. For the day, the index gained 129.63 points or 0.60 percent to finish at 21,790.29 after trading between 21,717.52 and 21,866.27. Among the actives, Cathay Financial and CTBC Financial both collected 0.16 percent, while Mega Financial slid 0.25 percent, First Financial gained 0.55 percent, E Sun Financial improved 0.65 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company rallied 1.01 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation strengthened 1.44 percent, Hon Hai Precision climbed 0.98 percent, Largan Precision advanced 0.86 percent, Catcher Technology fell 0.24 percent, MediaTek increased 0.39 percent, Delta Electronics added 0.38 percent, Novatek Microelectronics dipped 0.20 percent, Nan Ya Plastics perked 0.17 percent, Asia Cement rose 0.24 percent and Formosa Plastics and Fubon Financial were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is pedestrian as the major averages opened lower on Monday, moved into the green by midday but faded going into the close to end mixed and little changed.

The Dow dipped 1.11 points or 0.00 percent to finish at 42,761.76, while the NASDAQ added 61.28 points or 0.31 percent to close are 19,591.24 and the S&P 500 perked 5.52 points or 0.09 percent to end at 6,005.88.

The choppy trading on Wall Street came as traders awaited any news of U.S.-China trade talks that in London later today that could help ease trade tensions between the two superpowers. While most of the major sectors ended the day showing only modest moves, semiconductor stocks moved sharply higher on the day, driving the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index up by 2.0 percent to its best closing level in over three months.

Crude oil rose on Monday due to hopes sparked by US-China trade talks and that the nearing summer travel season may boost energy demand. West Texas Intermediate crude for July delivery settled at $65.29 per barrel, up 71 cents, the highest since April 3.