Taiwan Stock Market May Hand Back Thursday's Gains

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market rebounded emphatically on Thursday, one day after halting the three-day winning streak in which it had gathered almost 310 points or 1.4 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just above the 22,375-point plateau although it figures to turn lower again on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is weak on lingering concerns over tariffs and the health of the world economy. The European and U.S. markets both were slightly lower and the Asian bourses figure to follow that lead.

The TSE finished sharply higher on Thursday following gains from the financial shares, technology stocks, plastics and cement companies.

For the day, the index rallied 416.43 points or 1.90 percent to finish at the daily high of 22,377.26 after moving as low as 22,171.00.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial advanced 0.92 percent, while Mega Financial collected 0.50 percent, First Financial added 0.54 percent, Fubon Financial climbed 1.01 percent, E Sun Financial rose 0.34 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company soared 3.47 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation jumped 1.92 percent, Hon Hai Precision strengthened 1.22 percent, Largan Precision dropped 0.99 percent, Catcher Technology improved 0.72 percent, MediaTek accelerated 1.37 percent, Delta Electronics increased 0.77 percent, Novatek Microelectronics rallied 2.04 percent, Formosa Plastics gained 1.62 percent, Nan Ya Plastics gathered 1.32 percent, Asia Cement was up 1.00 percent and CTBC Financial was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages were unable to hold early gains on Thursday, slipping slightly under water by the close.

The Dow shed 11.31 points or 0.03 percent to finish at 41,953.32m while the NASDAQ lost 59.16 points or 0.33 percent to close at 17,691.16 and the S&P 500 fell 12.40 points or 0.22 percent to end at 5,662.89.

The modestly lower close on Wall Street came amid lingering concerns about the economic outlook following the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement on Wednesday.

The Fed announced its widely expected decision to leave interest rates unchanged, but forecasts suggest officials still expect to resume cutting rates later this year.

However, the Fed officials also lowered their projections for GDP growth in 2025 to 1.7 percent from 2.1 percent and raised their forecasts for consumer price growth this year to 2.7 percent from 2.5 percent.

Oil prices climbed higher on Thursday after the U.S. slapped fresh sanctions on Iran. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for April closed higher by $1.10 or about 1.6 percent at $68.26 a barrel on the expiration day.