Taiwan Shares May Take Further Damage On Monday

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market on Friday halted the four-day winning streak in which it had surged more than 750 points or 4.2 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just beneath the 18,610-point plateau and the losses may accelerate on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is murky to lower, weighed by pessimism over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The TSE finished modestly lower on Friday following mixed performances from the financials, plastics, cement companies and technology stocks.

For the day, the index dipped 37.35 points or 0.20 percent to finish at 18,607.25 after trading between 18,585.14 and 18,715.69.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial climbed 1.14 percent, while Mega Financial rose 0.26 percent, CTBC Financial lost 0.53 percent, First Financial collected 0.37 percent, Fubon Financial advanced 0.92 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company tanked 2.01 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation sank 0.71 percent, Hon Hai Precision added 0.50 percent, Largan Precision shed 0.62 percent, MediaTek dipped 0.21 percent, Delta Electronics soared 2.46 percent, Novatek Microelectronics jumped 1.58 percent, Formosa Plastics increased 0.83 percent, Nan Ya Plastics eased 0.16 percent, Asia Cement strengthened 1.02 percent, Taiwan Cement fell 0.31 percent, China Steel rallied 1.22 percent and Catcher Technology and E Sun Financial were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened lower on Friday and spent most of the session in the red before finishing under water.

The Dow dropped 145.11 points or 0.37 percent to finish at 38,627.99, while the NASDAQ tumbled 130.55 points or 0.82 percent to close at 15,775.65 and the S&P 500 sank 24.16 points or 0.48 percent to end at 5,005.57.

The early weakness on Wall Street reflected renewed concerns about the outlook for interest rates following the release of a Labor Department report showing a bigger than expected increase in U.S. producer prices in January.

Following last week's hotter-than expected consumer price inflation figures, the data added to concerns the Federal Reserve will postpone cutting interest rates longer than investors had hoped.

However, the negative sentiment was partly offset by a separate report from the University of Michigan showing an uptick in consumer sentiment in February.

Oil price climbed higher on Friday, lifting the most active WTI Crude futures to a 11-week high, on concerns about potential supply disruptions in the Middle East. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for March ended higher by $1.16 at $79.19 a barrel.