Win Streak May Continue For Taiwan Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market has tracked higher in four straight sessions, advancing almost 600 points or 3 percent along the way. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just beneath the 21,150-point plateau and it's tipped to open in the green again on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat on rising optimism over the outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets were up and the Asian bourses are expected to follow that lead.

The TSE finished modestly higher on Wednesday following gains from the financial shares and a mixed picture from the technology stocks.

For the day, the index jumped 161.36 points or 0.77 percent to finish at 21,147.21 after trading between 20,984.70 and 21,308.32.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial surged 4.24 percent, while Mega Financial collected 0.86 percent, CTBC Financial accelerated 2.36 percent, First Financial improved 0.73 percent, Fubon Financial soared 3.65 percent, E Sun Financial rose 0.36 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company jumped 1.70 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation shed 0.58 percent, Hon Hai Precision dropped 0.87 percent, Largan Precision tumbled 1.74 percent, Catcher Technology strengthened 1.52 percent, Delta Electronics advanced 0.95 percent, Novatek Microelectronics lost 0.69 percent, Formosa Plastics fell 0.44 percent, Taiwan Cement eased 0.15 percent, China Steel skidded 1.00 percent and MediaTek, Nan Ya Plastics and Asia Cement were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is strong as the major averages opened higher and remained in the green throughout, finishing near daily highs.

The Dow rallied 349.89 points or 0.88 percent to finish at 39,908.00, while the NASDAQ spiked 231.21 points or 1.40 percent to close at 16,742.29 and the S&P 500 jumped 61.47 points or 1.17 percent to end at 5,308.15.

The rally on Wall Street followed the release of a Labor Department report showing consumer prices in the U.S. rose slightly less than expected in April.

Following Tuesday's hotter-than-expected producer price inflation data, the report added to recently renewed optimism about the outlook for interest rates.

In other economic news, the Commerce Department said retail sales in the U.S. unexpectedly came in flat in April, versus forecasts for an increase of 0.4 percent.

Crude oil prices climbed higher on Wednesday, buoyed by soft inflation data and a report showing a bigger than expected drop in U.S. crude inventories last week. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for June ended up by $0.61 or 0.78 percent at $78.63 a barrel.