Taiwan Stock Market Tipped To Open In The Green

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market on Thursday halted the three-day losing streak in which it had fallen almost 340 points or 2.2 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now rests just beneath the 15,200-point plateau and now it's got a solid lead for Friday's trade.

The global forecast for the Asian bourses is positive after interest rate concerns resulted in oversold markets. The European and U.S. markets were up and the Asian markets are tipped to open in similar fashion.

The TSE finished modestly higher on Thursday following gains from the financials, technology stocks, plastics and cement companies.

For the day, the index gained 130.85 points or 0.87 percent to finish at 15,200.04 after trading between 15,105.31 and 15,244.06.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial collected 0.43 percent, while Mega Financial and CTBC Financial both strengthened 1.28 percent, First Financial improved 1.14 percent, E Sun Financial gained 0.54 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company advanced 0.99 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation climbed 1.22 percent, Largan Precision rallied 2.37 percent, MediaTek added 0.45 percent, Delta Electronics rose 0.37 percent, Formosa Plastics perked 0.32 percent, Nan Ya Plastics gathered 1.00 percent, Asia Cement perked 0.35 percent, Taiwan Cement increased 0.76 percent and Hon Hai Precision, Catcher Technology and Fubon Financial were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is upbeat as the major averages opened mixed on Thursday but quickly turned higher and maintained a largely positive bias throughout the day, ending near session highs.

The Dow spiked 322.55 points or 0.98 percent to finish at 33,291.78, while the NASDAQ surged 207.74 points or 1.67 percent to end at 12,639.27 and the S&P 500 jumped 58.35 points or 1.41 percent to end at 4,199.12.

The strength that emerged on Wall Street came as traders looked ahead to Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's speech in the Jackson Hole Symposium later today.

Powell is widely expected to reiterate the central bank's hawkish stance, given the expectations that inflation in the U.S. will be persistent and it will take time to contain it. That has already largely been priced into the markets, however.

On the economic front, the Labor Department said the U.S. economy contracted an annualized 0.6 percent in the second quarter, following a 1.6 percent drop a quarter earlier. Also, the Labor Department said initial jobless claims dropped more than expected last week.

Crude oil futures settled lower Thursday, after posting gains in the previous two sessions. Oil prices fell as traders weighed the prospects for the return of Iranian oil to the market. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures ended lower by $2.37 or 2.5 percent at $92.52 a barrel.

Closer to home, Taiwan will see August results for its consumer confidence index; in July, the index score was 63.05.