Taiwan Stock Market May See Continued Consolidation

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market on Thursday wrote a finish to the two-day winning streak in which it had climbed more than 220 points or 1.5 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now rests just beneath the 15,600-point plateau and it may take further damage on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to lower on continuing concerns over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The TSE finished modestly lower on Thursday following losses from the cement companies and mixed performances from the financials and technology stocks.

For the day, the index dipped 19.46 points or 0.12 percent to finish at 15,598.71 after trading between 15,553.84 and 15,617.34.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial lost 0.58 percent, while Mega Financial dipped 0.16 percent, CTBC Financial shed 0.45 percent, Fubon Financial fell 0.17 percent, First Financial rose 0.19 percent, E Sun Financial collected 0.41 percent, Hon Hai Precision added 0.50 percent, Largan Precision skidded 1.12 percent, Catcher Technology gained 0.54 percent, MediaTek improved 0.67 percent, Delta Electronics retreated 1.35 percent, Novatek Microelectronics tanked 2.18 percent, Formosa Plastics was up 0.11 percent, Nan Ya Plastics perked 0.13 percent, Asia Cement was down 0.12 percent, Taiwan Cement sank 0.41 percent and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company and United Microelectronics Corporation were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street ends up negative as the major averages were unable to hold on to early gains on Thursday, sinking into the red by midday and ending at daily lows.

The Dow tumbled 249.13 points or 0.73 percent to finish at 33,699.88, while the NASDAQ slumped 120.94 points or 1.02 percent to close at 11,789.58 and the S&P 500 sank 36.36 points or 0.88 percent to end at 4,081.50.

The sharp pullback on Wall Street partly reflected ongoing interest rate concerns following hawkish comments by some Federal Reserve officials.

In U.S. economic news, the Labor Department said first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits rebounded by slightly more than expected last week.

Crude oil futures ended lower Thursday as rising crude inventories in the U.S. and prospects of more interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve weighed on oil prices. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for March ended lower by $0.41 or 0.5 percent at $78.06 a barrel.