Soft Start Anticipated For Taiwan Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market has finished lower in back-to-back sessions, surrendering almost 500 points or 2.5 percent along the way. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now rests just above the 21,360-point plateau and it may extend its losses again on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is one of caution ahead of key inflation data later today. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets are tipped to follow the latter lead.

The TSE finished sharply lower on Thursday following losses from the financial shares, technology stocks and cement companies.

For the day, the index dropped 298.02 points or 1.38 percent to finish at 21,364.48 after trading between 21,364.24 and 21,558.36.

Among the actives, Mega Financial slid 0.26 percent, CTBC Financial tumbled 2.08 percent, First Financial skidded 1.09 percent, Fubon Financial lost 0.69 percent, E Sun Financial sank 0.72 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company and Hon Hai Precision both surrendered 2.22 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation eased 0.18 percent, Largan Precision retreated 1.32 percent, Catcher Technology shed 0.66 percent, Delta Electronics plunged 3.37 percent, Novatek Microelectronics dropped 0.98 percent, Formosa Plastics declined 0.76 percent, Nan Ya Plastics rose 0.19 percent, Asia Cement stumbled 1.87 percent, Taiwan Cement slumped 1.05 percent, China Steel fell 0.42 percent and MediaTek and Cathay Financial were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened solidly lower on Thursday and remained well in the red throughout the trading day, ending near session lows.

The Dow plunged 330.06 points or 0.86 percent to finish at 38,111.48, while the NASDAQ tumbled 183.50 points or 1.08 percent to end at 16,737.08 and the S&P 500 sank 31.47 points or 0.60 percent to close at 5,235.48.

The weakness on Wall Street was fueled by concerns about the outlook for interest rates ahead of the release of closely watched inflation data later today, which includes readings said to be preferred by the Federal Reserve.

A nosedive by shares of Salesforce (CRM) weighed on the Dow, with the software company plunging 19.7 percent after reporting weaker than expected revenues and guidance.

In economic news, the Labor Department said first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits crept modestly higher last week. Also, the Commerce Department said gross domestic product was revised down to 1.3 percent in Q1 from 1.6 percent.

Oil futures ended sharply lower on Thursday as a jump in gasoline inventories weighed on oil prices. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for July ended down by $1.32 or 1.7 percent at $77.91 a barrel.