Win Streak May End For Taiwan Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market has finished higher in three straight sessions, surging more than 450 points or 3.8 percent along the way. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now rests just above the 14,750-point plateau although it may run out of steam on Tuesday.

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

The TSE finished sharply higher on Monday with gains across the board, especially among the financials, technology stocks and plastic and cement companies.

For the day, the index accelerated 378.87 points or 2.64 percent to finish at the daily high of 14,752.21 after trading as low as 14,504.47.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial climbed 3.07 percent, while Mega Financial and CTBC Financial both accelerated 2.42 percent, Fubon Financial and First Financial both gained 1.89 percent, E Sun Financial collected 2.71 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company soared 4.91 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation surged 4.95 percent, Hon Hai Precision improved 0.71 percent, Largan Precision jumped 2.06 percent, Catcher Technology strengthened 2.33 percent, MediaTek rallied 2.27 percent, Delta Electronics spiked 4.04 percent, Novatek Microelectronics dropped 0.99 percent, Formosa Plastics and Taiwan Cement both advanced 1.02 percent, Nan Ya Plastics rose 2.75 percent and Asia Cement added 1.09 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is murky as the major averages opened higher on Monday but faded as the day progressed, eventually ending mixed and little changed.

The Dow dropped 112.96 points or 0.34 percent to finish at 33,517.65, while the NASDAQ gained 66.36 points or 0.63 percent to close at 10,635.65 and the S&P 500 dipped 2.99 points or 0.08 percent to end at 3,892.09.

The tech-heavy NASDAQ was solid after bond yields dropped amid bets the Federal Reserve will slow down the pace of its interest rate hikes in the coming months.

Stocks pared gains after comments from Fed officials that the central bank might raise rates to somewhere above 5 percent.

Crude oil prices climbed higher Monday, gaining for a third straight session amid hopes of increased demand - while a weak dollar also helped to support oil prices. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for February rose $0.86 or 1.2 percent at $74.63 a barrel.