Taiwan Stock Market May Add To Its Winnings

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market has finished higher in two straight sessions, gathering almost 140 points or 0.8 percent in that span. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just beneath the 17,420-point plateau and it's tipped to open in the green again on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests mild upside on optimism for the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The TSE finished modestly higher again on Monday following mixed performances from the financial shares, technology stocks and cement companies.

For the day, the index added 34.35 points or 0.20 percent to finish at 17,418.34 after trading between 17,372.82 and 17,451.82.

Among the actives, Mega Financial dropped 0.89 percent, while CTBC Financial fell 0.36 percent, First Financial slid 0.18 percent, Fubon Financial sank 0.47 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company improved 0.70 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation climbed 1.03 percent, Hon Hai Precision shed 0.49 percent, Largan Precision rallied 2.18 percent, Catcher Technology rose 0.27 percent, MediaTek dipped 0.21 percent, Delta Electronics lost 0.64 percent, Novatek Microelectronics added 0.39 percent, Formosa Plastics eased 0.12 percent, Nan Ya Plastics dipped 0.44 percent, Asia Cement perked 0.12 percent, Taiwan Cement declined 0.58 percent, China Steel retreated 1.53 percent and Cathay Financial and E Sun Financial were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is modestly positive as the major averages opened mixed on Monday but all turned higher to finish with mild gains.

The Dow jumped 157.06 points or 0.43 percent to finish at 36,404.93, while the NASDAQ added 28.51 points or 0.20 percent to close at 14,432.49 and the S&P 500 rose 18.07 points or 0.39 percent to end at 4,622.44.

Overall trading activity was somewhat subdued ahead of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement on Wednesday, although stocks continued to benefit from the optimism about the outlook for interest rates.

Optimism the Fed could pivot to cutting interest rates as soon as March 2024 has contributed to recent strength on Wall Street, although last Friday's strong than expected jobs data has led to speculation the Fed could wait until May to begin lowering rates.

Crude oil futures settled marginally higher on Monday due to continued uncertainty about the outlook for energy demand. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures ended with a small gain of $0.09 or 0.13 percent at $71.32 a barrel.