Taiwan Stock Market May Add To Its Winnings On Monday

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market has climbed higher in three straight sessions, rallying more than 775 points or 3.2 percent along the way. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just above the 23,550-point plateau and it's called to open higher again on Monday - although profit taking may set in later in the day.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat on an improved outlook for interest rates. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The TSE finished modestly higher on Friday following gains from the financial shares, weakness from the plastics and a mixed picture from the technology stocks.

For the day, the index added 34.06 points or 0.14 percent to finish at 23,556.59 after trading between 23,491.79 and 23,628.86.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial advanced 0.99 percent, while Mega Financial collected 0.36 percent, CTBC Financial gained 0.75 percent, Fubon Financial accelerated 1.43 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation dropped 0.93 percent, Largan Precision jumped 1.94 percent, Catcher Technology improved 1.32 percent, MediaTek tumbled 1.82 percent, Delta Electronics strengthened 1.31 percent, Novatek Microelectronics fell 0.32 percent, Formosa Plastics lost 0.52 percent, Nan Ya Plastics slumped 1.31 percent, Asia Cement plunged 2.61 percent and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Hon Hai Precision, First Financial and E Sun Financial were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is solid as the major averages opened flat but generally moved higher throughout the trading day, ending near session highs.

The Dow added 67.87 points or 0.17 percent to finish at 39,375.87, while the NASDAQ rallied 164.46 points or 0.90 percent to close at a record 18,352.76 and the S&P 500 gained 30.17 points or 0.54 percent to end at 5,567.19 - also a record.

For the holiday-interrupted week, the NASDAQ spiked 3.5 percent, the S&P 500 surged 2.0 percent and the Dow advanced 0.7 percent.

The strength on Wall Street came as the Labor Department's closely watched monthly jobs report for June generated optimism about the outlook for interest rates.

While employment jumped by more than expected in June, the report also showed downward revisions to job growth in April and May as well as another unexpected uptick by the unemployment rate.

Treasury yields moved lower after the release of the report amid optimism the continued increase by the jobless rate will convince the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates in the near future.

Oil futures slipped on Friday, but still posted their fourth straight weekly gain amid optimism about the outlook for demand. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for August ended down by $0.72 or 0.86 percent at $83.16 a barrel. WTI crude futures gained about 2 percent in the week.