Taiwan Stock Market Due For Profit Taking On Wednesday

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market has finished higher in two straight sessions, rallying more than 450 points or 2.3 percent along the way. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just beneath the 20,800-point plateau although it may see consolidation on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests little movement ahead of key inflation data later today. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were mixed and little changed the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The TSE finished sharply higher on Tuesday following gains from the financial shares, technology stocks and plastics companies.

For the day, the index jumped 378.50 points or 1.85 percent to finish at 20,796.20 after trading between 20,521.56 and 20,820.81.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial spiked 2.28 percent, while Mega Financial collected 1.00 percent, CTBC Financial rose 0.31 percent, First Financial gathered 0.36 percent, Fubon Financial jumped 1.89 percent, E Sun Financial added 0.55 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company surged 4.60 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation gained 0.58 percent, Catcher Technology shed 0.47 percent, MediaTek advanced 0.87 percent, Novatek Microelectronics improved 0.85 percent, Nan Ya Plastics and Formosa Plastics both strengthened 1.56 percent, Asia Cement increased 0.60 percent, Taiwan Cement lost 0.51 percent, China Steel rallied 0.35 percent and Hon Hai Precision, Largan Precision and Delta Electronics were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street continues to be murky as the major averages opened higher on Tuesday but quickly headed south to spend most of the day in the red before a late rally saw them finish mixed and little changed.

The Dow shed 9.13 points or 0.02 percent to finish at 38,883.67, while the NASDAQ gained 52.68 points or 0.32 percent to close at 16,306.64 and the S&P 500 rose 7.52 points or 0.14 percent to end at 5,209.91.

The volatility on Wall Street came as traders continued to look ahead to the release of the Labor Department's report on consumer price inflation later today.

The inflation data could have a significant impact on the outlook for interest rates, as Federal Reserve officials have repeatedly said they need greater confidence that inflation is slowing before cutting rates.

Wednesday will also see the release of the minutes of the Fed's latest monetary policy meeting, which could also shed additional light on officials' thinking on rates.

Oil prices fell on Tuesday, slumping for a second straight session as traders assessed the prospect of meaningful progress in Gaza ceasefire talks. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for May sank $1.20 or 1.4 percent at $85.23 a barrel.

Closer to home, Taiwan will see March data for imports, exports and trade balance later today; in February, imports were down 17.8 percent on year and exports rose 1.3 percent for a trade surplus of $7.89 billion.