Taiwan Stock Market May Add To Its Winnings On Monday

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market rebounded on Friday, one day after snapping the four-day winning streak in which it had jumped more than 410 points or 2.5 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just above the 16,880-point plateau although it's expected to open in the green again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is cautiously optimistic ahead of this week's Federal Reserve's meeting. The European markets were slightly lower and the U.S. markets were slightly higher and the Asian bourses are tipped to follow the latter lead.

The TSE finished modestly higher on Friday following gains from the financial shares and plastics companies, while the cement stocks were soft and the technology companies were mixed.

For the day, the index advanced 152.70 point or 0.91 percent to finish at 16,886.40 after trading between 16,775.92 and 16,895.99.

Among the actives, Mega Financial collected 0.94 percent, while CTBC Financial soared 2.23 percent, Fubon Financial gained 0.66 percent, E Sun Financial fell 0.38 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company climbed 1.07 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation strengthened 1.55 percent, Hon Hai Precision advanced 0.93 percent, Largan Precision improved 0.91 percent, Catcher Technology added 0.79 percent, MediaTek shed 0.52 percent, Delta Electronics lost 0.62 percent, Novatek Microelectronics jumped 1.65 percent, Formosa Plastics rose 0.32 percent, Nan Ya Plastics was up 0.76 percent, Asia Cement eased 0.11 percent, Taiwan Cement dipped 0.13 percent and China Steel, Cathay Financial and First Financial were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street suggests mild upside as the major averages opened firmly higher on Friday, slumped midday but ticked back into the green to end slightly higher.

The Dow added 43.18 points or 0.13 percent to finish at 33,876.78, while the NASDAQ rose 20.64 points or 0.16 percent to close at 13,259.14 and the S&P 500 perked 4.93 points or 0.11 percent to end at 4,298.86.

For the week, the S&P rose 0.4 percent, the Dow gained 0.3 percent and the NASDAQ perked 0.1 percent.

The lackluster performance on Wall Street came as traders continued to look ahead to the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement on Wednesday.

Thursday's report showing initial jobless claims jumped to their highest level since October 2021 last week added to the optimism about the Fed pausing its interest rate hikes.

Crude oil prices slumped again on Friday, extending losses from the previous session on concerns about the outlook for demand ahead of several key central bank meetings this week. West Texas Intermediate for July delivery fell $1.12 or 1.6 percent to $70.17 a barrel.