Win Streak May End For Taiwan Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market has tracked higher in four straight sessions, advancing more than 700 points or 4.5 percent along the way. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now rests just above the 16,170-point plateau although it's likely to see consolidation on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is uncertain amidst debt ceiling negotiations in the United States. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian bourses are tipped to open in similar fashion.

The TSE finished modestly higher on Friday following gains from the financial shares and mixed performances from the technology and plastics companies.

For the day, the index added 73.02 points or 0.45 percent to finish at 16,174.92 after trading between 16,099.90 and 16,189.81.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial jumped 1.69 percent, while Mega Financial was up 0.14 percent, CTBC Financial improved 1.24 percent, First Financial perked 0.18 percent, Fubon Financial collected 0.82 percent, E Sun Financial climbed 1.15 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company rose 0.38 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation shed 0.40 percent, Largan Precision rallied 2.26 percent, Catcher Technology added 0.53 percent, MediaTek strengthened 1.31 percent, Novatek Microelectronics eased 0.12 percent, Formosa Plastics slid 0.32 percent, Nan Ya Plastics gathered 0.50 percent, Asia Cement gained 0.45 percent, China Steel sank 0.34 percent and Hon Hai Precision, Delta Electronics and Taiwan Cement were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is slightly soft as the major averages opened higher on Friday but slipped into the shortly thereafter and finished the same way.

The Dow dropped 109.27 points or 0.33 percent to finish at 33,426.63, while the NASDAQ sank 30.90 points or 0.24 percent to close at 12,657.90 and the S&P 500 fell 6.07 points or 0.14 percent to end at 4,191.98. For the week, the NASDAQ surged 3.0 percent, the S&P 500 jumped 1.7 percent and the Dow rose 0.4 percent.

The downturn on Wall Street came as Republican negotiators walked out of a meeting over raising the U.S. debt ceiling, offsetting recent optimism about an impending deal.

Selling pressure remained relatively subdued, however, as traders still expect lawmakers to eventually reach a debt ceiling deal.

Comments from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell reinforcing expectations the central bank will leave interest rates unchanged next month also helped limit the downside.

Crude oil futures pared early gains and settled lower on Friday, weighed down by the ambiguity regarding the U.S. debt ceiling talks. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for June slipped $0.31 or 0.4 percent to $71.55 a barrel; WTI crude futures gained 2.2 percent in the week.

Closer to home, Taiwan will see April figures for export orders and unemployment later today. Export orders are expected to sink 13.9 percent on year after tumbling 25.7 percent in March. The jobless rate is called steady at 3.59 percent.