Tech Shares Likely To Boost Taiwan Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market has moved higher in consecutive trading days, advancing more than 130 points or 0.7 percent along the way. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now rests just above the 17,290-point plateau and it's poised to extend its winning streak on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat on easing inflation concerns and an improved outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets were up and the Asian bourses figure to follow that lead.

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

For the day, the index added 51.13 points or 0.30 percent to finish at 17,292.93 after trading between 17,179.94 and 17,328.21.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial shed 0.54 percent, while Mega Financial eased 0.12 percent, CTBC Financial sank 0.94 percent, First Financial collected 0.35 percent, Fubon Financial dipped 0.15 percent, E Sun Financial slid 0.19 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company fell 0.35 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation jumped 1.95 percent, Hon Hai Precision dropped 0.90 percent, Largan Precision rose 0.23 percent, Catcher Technology retreated 1.69 percent, Delta Electronics rallied 2.23 percent, Novatek Microelectronics added 0.36 percent, Formosa Plastics lost 0.36 percent, Nan Ya Plastics was down 0.29 percent, Asia Cement gained 0.25 percent, China Steel slumped 0.88 percent and MediaTek and Taiwan Cement were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is solid as the major averages opened higher on Friday and remained in the green throughout the trading day.

The Dow jumped 176.59 points or 0.50 percent to finish at 35,459.29, while the NASDAQ surged 266.56 points or 1.90 percent to end at 14,316.66 and the S&P 500 advanced 44.82 points or 0.99 percent to close at 4,582.23.

The strength on Wall Street was the result of encouraging earnings updates from top tech firms and data showing a slowdown in the annual rate of growth in consumer prices in June.

Easing worries about interest rates following the Federal Reserve hinting at a pause in hikes as early as September helped as well.

The slowdown in the annual rate of consumer price growth may ease concerns about the outlook for interest rates following Thursday's better-than-expected economic data.

Oil prices climbed higher on Friday, and the most active futures contract posted gains for the fifth straight week amid easing U.S. recession fears and on optimism over increased demand. West Texas Intermediate Crude futures for September added $0.49 or 0.6 percent at $80.58 a barrel. WTI crude futures gained 4.6 percent in the week.