Tech Shares May Weigh On Taiwan Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market has alternated between positive and negative finishes through the last four trading days since the end of the two-day losing streak in which it had given up more than 640 points or 2.3 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just above the 27,780-point plateau and it may remain stuck in neutral on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat amid optimism about an end to the record-setting U.S. government shutdown. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were mixed and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

Th TSE finished modestly lower on Tuesday as losses from the technology stocks were mitigated by support from the plastics companies and a mixed picture from the financial sector.

For the day, the index sank 84.56 points or 0.30 percent to finish at the daily low of 27,784.95 after peaking at 28,187.70.

Among the actives, Mega Financial shed 0.49 percent, while Fubon Financial collected 0.44 percent, E Sun Financial rallied 2.20 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company lost 0.68 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation perked 0.11 percent, Hon Hai Precision retreated 1.20 percent, Largan Precision slumped 1.34 percent, MediaTek sank 0.80 percent, Delta Electronics skidded 1.02 percent, Novatek Microelectronics jumped 1.56 percent, Formosa Plastics spiked 2.31 percent, Nan Ya Plastics surged 4.74 percent, Asia Cement dropped 0.94 percent and Cathay Financial, CTBC Financial and Catcher Technology were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is incongruous as the major averages opened mixed and ultimately finished the same way.

The Dow jumped 559.33 points or 1.18 percent to finish at 47,927.96, while the NASDAQ slumped 58.87 points or 0.25 percent to close at 23,468.30 and the S&P 500 rose 14.18 points or 0.21 percent to end at 6,846.61.

The mixed performance on Wall Street came as traders express some uncertainty about the near-term outlook for the markets - especially the possibility of a tech bubble - following recent volatility.

However, valuation concerns continue to hang over the markets, as traders had largely shrugged off worries about the economic impact of the shutdown.

A sharp increase by the price of crude oil has also contributed to considerable strength among energy stocks, which are moving higher along with biotechnology and healthcare stocks.

On the other hand, semiconductor stocks have come under pressure, dragging the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index down by 2.0 percent.