Taiwan Shares Tipped To Open In The Red On Monday

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market has tracked higher in three straight sessions, collecting more than 475 points or 1.9 percent along the way. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just beneath the 24,500-point plateau although the rally may stall on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft on concerns about the health of the American economy. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian bourses are also expected to open to the downside.

The TSE finished sharply higher on Friday following gains from the financial shares and technology stocks, while the plastics companies were weak.

For the day, the index rallied 314.73 points or 1.30 percent to finish at the daily high of 24,494.58 after moving as low as 24,244.26.

Among the actives, Mega Financial collected 0.36 percent, while CTBC Financial dipped 0.16 percent, First Financial shed 0.51 percent, Fubon Financial gained 0.58 percent, E Sun Financial improved 0.88 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company jumped 1.72 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation tumbled 1.90 percent, Hon Hai Precision advanced 0.99 percent, Largan Precision added 0.42 percent, Catcher Technology fell 0.27 percent, MediaTek soared 3.61 percent, Delta Electronics surged 5.07 percent, Novatek Microelectronics perked 0.11 percent, Formosa Plastics slumped 1.18 percent, Nan Ya Plastics skidded 1.16 percent and Asia Cement and Cathay Financial were unchanged.

The lead from the Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened slightly higher on Friday but quickly headed south and spent the balance of the day in the red.

The Dow stumbled 220.44 points or 0.48 percent to finish at 45,400.86, while the NASDAQ fell 7.31 points or 0.03 percent to close at 21,700.39 and the S&P 500 sank 20.58 points or 0.32 percent to end at 6,481.50. For the week, the NASDAQ jumped 1.1 percent, the S&P rose 0.3 percent and the Dow dipped 0.3 percent.

The early downturn on Wall Street came as traders digested a closely watched Labor Department report showing much weaker than expected U.S. job growth in the month of August.

Traders initially reacted positively to the report amid optimism the data will convince the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates later this month. But buying interest quickly waned amid concerns about the outlook for the economy.

Crude oil moved sharply lower on Friday as oversupply concerns grew stronger ahead of OPEC's Sunday meeting, where the group did as expected and boosted output. West Texas Intermediate crude for October delivery dropped $1.64 or 2.58 percent to $61.84 per barrel.