Taiwan Stock Market Due For Profit Taking

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market has moved higher in five straight sessions, gathering almost 950 points or 3.5 percent along the way. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just above the 28,300-point plateau although investors figure to lock in gains on Tuesday. The global forecast for the Asian markets is flat to lower ahead of the FOMC meeting later this week. The European markets were mixed and little changed and the U.S. bourses were soft and the Asian markets figure to split the difference. The TSE finished sharply higher on Monday following gains from the financial shares and technology stocks. For the day, the index rallied 322.89 points or 1.15 percent to finish at the daily high of 28,303.78 after trading as low as 28,026.39. Among the actives, Cathay Financial collected 0.44 percent, while Mega Financial sank 0.73 percent, CTBC Financial dipped 0.16 percent, First Financial rose 0.36 percent, Fubon Financial added 0.63 percent, E Sun Financial soared 4.40 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company rallied 2.40 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation improved 0.82 percent, Hon Hai Precision gained 0.43 percent, Largan Precision tumbled 1.87 percent, Catcher Technology tanked 2.98 percent, MediaTek climbed 1.05 percent, Novatek Microelectronics shed 0.52 percent, Formosa Plastics lost 0.59 percent, Asia Cement perked 0.13 percent and Delta Electronics and Nan Ya Plastics were unchanged. The lead from Wall Street is weak as the major averages opened mixed but quickly headed south and spent the balance of the session well under water.

The Dow dropped 215.67 points or 0.45 percent to finish at 47,739.32, while the NASDAQ sank 32.22 points or 0.14 percent to close at 23,545.90 and the S&P 500 fell 23.89 points or 0.35 percent to end at 6,846.51.

The modest pullback on Wall Street reflected profit taking following recent strength in the markets, which saw the NASDAQ and S&P 500 reach their best closing levels in a month last Friday.

Overall trading activity was somewhat subdued, however, as traders looked ahead to the Federal Reserve's monetary policy decision on Wednesday.

With the Fed widely expected to lower interest rates by another quarter point, traders are likely to pay close attention to the accompanying statement for clues about the likelihood of further rate cuts next year.

Crude oil prices slumped on Monday as the U.S. dollar strengthened ahead of the Federal Reserve's interest rate decision, which has largely been priced in. West Texas Intermediate crude for January delivery was down $1.28 or 2.13 percent at $58.80 per barrel. Closer to home, Taiwan will release November figures for imports, exports and trade balance later today. Imports are expected to jump 17.5 percent on year, up from 14.6 percent in October. Exports are called higher by an annual 41.1 percent, easing from 49.7 percent in the previous month. The trade surplus is pegged at $18.50 billion, down from $22.58 billion a month earlier.