Tech Shares Likely To Drag Taiwan Bourse Lower

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market has moved lower in consecutive trading days, surrendering more than 170 points or 1.1 percent along the way. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now rests just beneath the 16,620-point plateau and it's likely to open in the red again on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to lower, with tech shares likely to weigh. The European and U.S. markets were mixed but little changed and the Asian markets are likely to open in similar fashion on Friday.

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

For the day, the index sank 119.02 points or 0.71 percent to finish at 16,619.14 after trading between 16,609.94 and 16,715.45.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial dipped 0.22 percent, while Mega Financial collected 0.84 percent, CTBC Financial eased 0.21 percent, First Financial rose 0.19 percent, Fubon Financial fell 0.33 percent, E Sun Financial sank 0.62 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company retreated 1.45 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation tumbled 2.03 percent, Hon Hai Precision shed 0.47 percent, Largan Precision plunged 2.36 percent, Catcher Technology skidded 1.10 percent, MediaTek improved 0.70 percent, Delta Electronics lost 0.58 percent, Novatek Microelectronics added 0.47 percent, Formosa Plastics perked 0.12 percent, Nan Ya Plastics gained 0.45 percent, Asia Cement dropped 0.88 percent, Taiwan Cement was down 0.15 percent and China Steel slumped 1.12 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is uninspired as the major averages opened mixed and finished little changed in similar fashion.

The Dow rose 57.54 points or 0.17 percent to finish at 34,500.73, while the NASDAQ sank 123.64 points or 0.89 percent to end at 13,748.83 and the S&P 500 fell 14.34 points or 0.32 percent to close at 4,451.14.

The early weakness on Wall Street reflected ongoing concerns about the outlook for interest rates after the Labor Department reported an unexpected drop in first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits last week.

The Fed is still widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged at its next meeting later this month, but CME Group's FedWatch Tool indicates a 43.4 percent chance of another rate hike in November.

The tech-heavy NASDAQ was weighed by weakness from Apple (AAPL) after reports said China plans to expand a ban on the use of iPhones in sensitive departments to government-backed agencies and state companies.

Crude oil prices fell on Thursday, despite a drop in U.S. crude inventories last week. Profit taking after recent strong gains was largely responsible as West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for October ended lower by $0.67 or 0.9 percent at $86.87 a barrel.

Closer to home, Taiwan will release August numbers for imports, exports and trade balance later today. In July, imports tumbled 20.9 percent on year and exports sank 10.4 percent for a trade surplus of $8.38 billion.