Taiwan Stock Market Due For Support On Monday

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market has finished lower in four straight sessions, retreating more than 360 points or 2.4 percent along the way. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now rests just above the 15,600-point plateau although it may find traction on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests mild upside ahead of economic and earnings news coming the week. The European and U.S. markets were slightly higher on Friday and the Asian bourses figure to follow suit.

The TSE finished modestly lower on Friday following losses from the technology and steel companies, gains from the plastic and cement sectors and a mixed picture from the financials.

For the day, the index sank 104.51 points or 0.67 percent to finish at 15,602.99 after trading between 15,592.96 and 15,802.93.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial shed 0.58 percent, while Mega Financial collected 0.44 percent, CTBC Financial lost 0.22 percent, First Financial added 0.37 percent, E Sun Financial eased 0.20 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company fell 0.39 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation skidded 1.18 percent, Hon Hai Precision lost 0.48 percent, Largan Precision climbed 1.24 percent, Catcher Technology slid 0.28 percent, MediaTek retreated 1.19 percent, Delta Electronics declined 1.14 percent, Novatek Microelectronics tanked 2.02 percent, Formosa Plastics rose 0.43 percent, Nan Ya Plastics rallied 1.17 percent, Asia Cement gained 0.69 percent, Taiwan Cement surged 2.96 percent, China Steel dropped 0.99 percent and Fubon Financial was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is cautiously optimistic as the major averages bounced back and forth across the unchanged line on Friday before finally finishing barely higher.

The Dow added 22.36 points or 0.07 percent to finish at 33,808.96, while the NASDAQ perked 12.86 points or 0.11 percent to close at 12,072.46 and the S&P 500 rose 3.73 points or 0.09 percent to end at 4,133.52.

For the week, the S&P 500 eased 0.1 percent, the Dow slipped 0.2 percent and the NASDAQ dipped by 0.4 percent.

The choppy trading on Wall Street came as traders seemed reluctant to make significant moves ahead of several key economic reports and corporate earnings numbers due be released this week.

Crude oil prices climbed higher Friday, buoyed by fairly strong data on private sector activity in the U.K. and eurozone. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for June ended higher by $0.50 or 0.7 percent at $77.87 a barrel. WTI lost 5.5 percent last week.