Tech Shares May Fuel Taiwan Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market on Friday ended the four-day winning streak in which it had surged almost 3,000 points or 7 percent to a fresh record closing high. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just above the 41,600-point plateau although it's expected to open in the green again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to higher on strong employment data from the United States. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets are expected to move mostly higher.

The TSE finished modestly lower on Friday as losses from the technology and plastics stocks were mitigated by support from the financial sector.

For the day, the index stumbled 329.84 points or 0.79 percent to finish at 41,603.94 after trading between 41,132.25 and 42,038.60.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial perked 0.16 percent, while Mega Financial vaulted 1.39 percent, CTBC Financial rose 0.36 percent, First Financial collected 1.20 percent, Fubon Financial spiked 2.33 percent, E Sun Financial rallied 1.25 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company sank 0.87 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation plunged 5.39 percent, Hon Hai Precision retreated 1.38 percent, Largan Precision dipped 0.19 percent, Catcher Technology shed 0.49 percent, MediaTek surged 6.14 percent, Delta Electronics surrendered 3.51 percent, Novatek Microelectronics skyrocketed 9.93 percent, Formosa Plastics tanked 2.02 percent, Nan Ya Plastics tumbled 1.88 percent and Asia Cement was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is mostly positive as the major averages opened higher on Friday and largely stayed that way, although the Dow spent the ay bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line.

The Dow rose 12.19 points or 0.02 percent to finish at 49,609.16, while the NASDAQ rallied 440.88 points or 1.71 percent to end at 26,247.08 and the S&P 500 gained 61.82 points or 0.84 percent to close at 7,398.93.

For the week, the NASDAQ spiked 4.4 percent, the S&P 500 jumped 2.3 percent and the Dow crept up 0.2 percent.

The strength on Wall Street came following the release of a closely watched Labor Department report showing much stronger than expected U.S. job growth in April.

The data helped ease concerns about the economic impact of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East even after the U.S. and Iran exchanged fire in the Strait of Hormuz.

Crude oil prices inched higher Friday as Middle East tensions renewed between the U.S. and Iran. Iran is also delaying its response to a U.S. peace proposal, adding to the uncertainty. West Texas Intermediate crude for June delivery was up $0.36 or 0.36 percent at $95.17 per barrel.