Taiwan Bourse May Reverse Wednesday's Losses

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market headed south again on Wednesday, one session after ending 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 15,430-point plateau although it's expected to rebound again on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat on easing concerns over the outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets were up and the Asian markets figure to follow that lead.

The TSE finished sharply lower on Wednesday following losses from the financial shares and plastic stocks and technology companies.

For the day, the index declined 221.59 points or 1.42 percent to finish at 15,432.89 after trading between 15,388.85 and 15,553.68.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial declined 1.49 percent, while Mega Financial lost 0.45 percent, CTBC Financial retreated 1.53 percent, Fubon Financial skidded 1.00 percent, First Financial sank 0.94 percent, E Sun Financial shed 0.79 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company tanked 3.67 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation dropped 0.99 percent, Hon Hai Precision added 0.49 percent, Largan Precision gained 0.67 percent, Catcher Technology dipped 0.27 percent, MediaTek tumbled 3.01 percent, Delta Electronics fell 0.34 percent, Novatek Microelectronics eased 0.13 percent, Formosa Plastics slumped 1.10 percent, Nan Ya Plastics weakened 1.06 percent, Asia Cement slid 0.24 percent and Taiwan Cement improved 0.81 percent,

The lead from Wall Street ends up positive as the major averages opened sharply lower on Wednesday but improved steadily throughout the session and finished in the green.

The Dow added 38.78 points or 0.11 percent to finish at 34,128.05, while the NASDAQ jumped 110.45 points or 0.92 percent to end at 12,070.59 and the S&P 500 rose 11.47 points or 0.28 percent to close at 4,147.60.

The early weakness on Wall Street reflected ongoing concerns about the outlook for interest rates following the release of upbeat retail sales data.

The sharp increase in retail sales has led to concerns the Federal Reserve will be encouraged to continue aggressively raising interest rates in an effort to combat inflation.

The concerns about rates may have been partly offset by a separate report from the Federal Reserve showing U.S. industrial production was unexpectedly unchanged in January.

Crude oil prices came off daily lows but still moved solidly lower on Wednesday, hurt by a stronger U.S. dollar and a spike in U.S. crude inventories last week. West Texas Intermediate was down $0.47 or 0.6 percent to $78.59 per barrel.