Tech Shares May Prompt Bargain Hunting For Taiwan Shares

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market has finished lower in three straight sessions, shedding almost 370 points or 1.6 percent along the way. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just beneath the 22,360-point plateau although it may stop the bleeding on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is cloudy on lingering concerns over U.S. trade policy. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were mixed and flat and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The TSE finished modestly lower on Tuesday following losses from the financials and plastics, while the technology companies were mixed.

For the day, the index shed 66.45 points or 0.30 percent to finish at 22,362.27 after trading between 22,190.46 and 22,375.65.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial slipped 0.32 percent, while Mega Financial collected 0.83 percent, CTBC Financial contracted 1.22 percent, First Financial shed 0.51 percent, Fubon Financial lost 0.98 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation gained 0.58 percent, Hon Hai Precision dropped 1.24 percent, Largan Precision skidded 1.14 percent, Catcher Technology strengthened 1.23 percent, MediaTek sank 0.78 percent, Delta Electronics rose 0.33 percent, Novatek Microelectronics slumped 1.29 percent, Formosa Plastics declined 1.70 percent, Nan Ya Plastics retreated 1.41 percent, Asia Cement stumbled 1.66 percent and E Sun Financial and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street offers little clarity as the major averages spent most of Tuesday's trade hugging the line, finally ending mixed and little changed.

The Dow shed 165.60 points or 0.37 percent to finish at 44,240.76, while the NASDAQ rose 5.95 points or 0.03 percent to close at 20,418.46 and the S&P 500 dipped 4.46 points or 0.07 percent to end at 6,225.52.

The choppy trading on Wall Street came as investors were reluctant to make significant moves amid lingering uncertainty about President Donald Trump's erratic trade policies.

A lack of major U.S. economic data may also have kept some traders on the sidelines ahead of the release of the minutes of the Federal Reserve's latest monetary policy meeting on Wednesday.

The Fed minutes may shed light on the outlook for interest rates ahead of the central bank's next meeting on July 29-30. CME Group's FedWatch Tool is currently indicating a 95.3 percent chance the Fed will leave rates unchanged this month.

Crude oil prices moved higher on Tuesday on concerns over disruptions to the oil supply lines due to Houthi attacks. West Texas Intermediate crude for August delivery closed up by $0.40 at $68.33 per barrel.