Taiwan Stock Market May Extend Winning Streak

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market has finished higher in three straight sessions, rallying almost 2,300 points or 7.3 percent in that span. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just above the 34,860-point plateau and it's expected to see continued strength again on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets comes on cautious optimism for easing hostilities in the Middle East. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The TSE finished modestly higher on Thursday following gains from the plastics and mixed performances from the financial shares and technology stocks.

For the day, the index improved 99.78 points or 0.29 percent to finish at 34,861.16 after trading between 34,617.34 and 34,884.45.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial perked 0.16 percent, while Mega Financial climbed 1.02 percent, CTBC Financial dipped 0.16 percent, First Financial collected 1.04 percent, Fubon Financial sank 0.78 percent, E Sun Financial added 0.46 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company rose 0.26 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation shed 0.50 percent, Hon Hai Precision dropped 0.74 percent, Catcher Technology fell 0.26 percent, MediaTek slipped 0.32 percent, Delta Electronics slipped 1.20 percent, Novatek Microelectronics rallied 2.04 percent, Formosa Plastics gained 0.42 percent, Nan Ya Plastics was up 0.12 percent, Asia Cement increased 0.84 percent and Largan Precision was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street ends up positive as the major averages shook off early weakness on Thursday to climb solidly up into the green by midday.

The Dow jumped 275.88 points or 0.58 percent to finish at 48,185.80, while the NASDAQ rallied 187.42 points or 0.83 percent to end at 22,822.42 and the S&P 500 gained 41.85 points or 0.62 percent to close at 6,824.66.

The early weakness came amid concerns about the fragility of the ceasefire in the Middle East, with Iran accusing the U.S. and Israel of violating the agreement.

Iran's deputy foreign minister Saeed Khatibzadeh claimed in an interview with the BBC that Iran had once again closed the Strait of Hormuz.

However, stocks rebounded after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would begin negotiating with Lebanon "as soon as possible."

Crude oil prices soared on Thursday as Iran allowed only restricted naval traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, renewing supply disruption concerns. West Texas Intermediate crude for May delivery was up $3.25 or 3.44 percent at $97.66 per barrel.

Closer to home, Taiwan will release trade data for March later today; in February, imports were up 6.8 percent on year and exports jumped an annual 20.6 percent for a trade surplus of $12.77 billion.