Win Streak May Continue For Taiwan Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market has finished higher now in five straight sessions, surging almost 700 points or 4 percent in that span. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now rests just above the 17,330-point plateau and it's looking at another green light for Tuesday's trade.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to higher on optimism over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The TSE finished modestly higher again on Monday following gains from the financials and a mixed picture from the technology stocks.

For the day, the index gained 50.58 points or 0.29 percent to finish at 17,334.29 after trading between 17,235.92 and 17,346.66.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial rallied 2.04 percent, while CTBC Financial spiked 2.95 percent, Fubon Financial surged 4.00 percent, First Financial collected 0.36 percent, E. Sun Financial gained 0.57 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation added 0.41 percent, Hon Hai Precision advanced 0.91 percent, MediaTek retreated 1.30 percent, Largan Precision dipped 0.22 percent, Delta Electronics perked 0.14 percent, Catcher Technology skidded 1.14 percent, Novatek Electronics sank 0.73 percent, Taiwan Cement shed 0.68 percent, Formosa Plastics lost 0.72 percent, Nan Ya Plastics was down 0.56 percent, China Steel improved 0.51 percent and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Mega Financial and Asia Cement were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is upbeat as the major averages opened mixed on Monday but all quickly turned higher. They pulled back from daily highs but still ended firmly in the green.

The Dow added 76.32 points or 0.22 percent to finish at 34,585.35, while the NASDAQ jumped 131.25 points or 0.93 percent to close at 14,244.95 and the S&P 500 rose 17.37 points or 0.39 percent to end at 4,522.79.

The strength on Wall Street partly reflected recent upward momentum, as encouraging inflation data has added to optimism about the outlook for interest rates ahead of next week's Federal Reserve meeting.

While the Fed is widely expected to raise rates by another quarter point, traders are hopeful that will mark the final rate hike.

On the U.S. economic front, the New York Federal Reserve released a report showing a pullback in the pace of growth in regional manufacturing activity in the month of July.

Oil prices fell on Monday amid concerns about the outlook for energy demand after data showed the Chinese economy grew at slower than expected pace in the second quarter. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for August ended lower by $1.27 or 1.7 percent at $74.15 a barrel.