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 five-day winning streak in which it had jumped almost 950 points or 3.5 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just beneath the 28,200-point plateau although it's likely to open to the downside on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is negative on renewed pessimism over the outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian bourses figure to follow that lead.

The TSE finished modestly higher on Friday following gains from the financial shares and plastics stocks, while the technology companies were mixed.

For the day, the index gained 173.27 points or 0.62 percent to finish at 28,198.02 after trading between 28,071.34 and 28,272.06.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial expanded 1.30 percent, while Mega Financial collected 0.61 percent, First Financial added 0.53 percent, Fubon Financial jumped 1.79 percent, E Sun Financial strengthened 1.39 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company improved 0.68 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation rose 0.31 percent, Hon Hai Precision gained 0.44 percent, Largan Precision dropped 0.96 percent, Catcher Technology skidded 1.06 percent, MediaTek increased 0.72 percent, Delta Electronics sank 0.74 percent, Novatek Microelectronics slumped 1.19 percent, Formosa Plastics perked 0.13 percent, Nan Ya Plastics rallied 2.00 percent, Asia Cement contracted 1.31 percent and CTBC Financial was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened mixed but quickly turned lower and spent the balance of the session underwater.

The Dow dropped 245.96 points or 0.51 percent to finish at 48,458.05, while the NASDAQ tumbled 398.69 points or 1.69 percent to close at 23,195.17 and the S&P 500 sank 73.59 points or 1.07 percent to end at 6,827.41.

For the week, the Dow jumped 1.1 percent, the S&P 500 slid 0.6 percent and the NASDAQ dove 1.6 percent.

The weakness on Wall Street was fueled by losses on the NASDAQ, which saw heavy selling among the technology stocks on renewed concerns over valuations.

Weak sentiment was also generated by comments from Chicago Federal Reserve President Austan Goolsbee, who explained his decision to vote against cutting interest rates at last week's Fed meeting saying that more inflation data should have been necessary.

Crude oil prices weakened on Friday as traders kept an eye on the latest developments in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict and escalating tensions between the U.S. and Venezuela. West Texas Intermediate crude for January delivery fell $0.20 or 0.4 percent at $57.40 per barrel.