Taiwan Stock Market May Reverse Monday's Losses

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market on Monday ended the three-day winning streak in which it had rallied more than 700 points or 3.3 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just beneath the 22,500-point plateau although it's expected to rebound again on Tuesday.

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

The TSE finished slightly lower on Monday as losses from the financials and plastics were offset by support from the technology companies.

For the day, the index eased 8.19 points or 0.04 percent to finish at 22,496.53 after trading between 22,431.26 and 22,567.34.

Cathay Financial retreated 1.20 percent, Mega Financial collected 0.63 percent, while CTBC Financial dipped 0.13 percent, Fubon Financial declined 1.17 percent, E. Sun Financial slid 0.17 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company eased 0.11 percent, United Microelectronics improved 0.71 percent, Largan Precision surged 3.57 percent, Novatek Microelectronics strengthened 1.30 percent, Catcher Technology skidded 1.08 percent, Hon Hai Precision climbed 1.01 percent, Asia Cement rose 0.36 percent, Nan Ya Plastics sank 0.79 percent, Formosa Plastics slumped 1.31 percent and China Steel and Taiwan Cement were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is upbeat as the major averages opened lower on Monday but quickly turned higher and finished solidly in the green.

The Dow jumped 188.94 points or 0.49 percent to finish at 38,778.10, while the NASDAQ rallied 168.14 points or 0.95 percent to close at 17,857.02 and the S&P 500 gained 41.63 points or 0.77 percent to end at 5,473.23.

The buying interest that emerged on Wall Street came as the markets benefitted from the positive sentiment generated last week by tamer-than-expected inflation data.

While Federal Reserve officials forecast just one interest rate cut this year following last Wednesday's monetary policy meeting, traders remain hopeful the predictions will turn out to be overly conservative if inflation continues to slow in the coming months.

On the U.S. economic front, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York released a report this morning showing New York manufacturing activity contracted at a notably slower rate in June.

Oil prices rose to a fresh six-week high on Monday on hopes about the outlook for energy demand. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for July ended higher by $1.88 or about 1.25 percent at $80.33 a barrel, the highest settlement since April 29.