Mild Upside Seen For Taiwan Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market on Wednesday halted the five-day winning streak in which it had jumped almost 350 points or 2.3 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now rests just beneath the 15,820-point plateau although it may inch higher again on Thursday.

The global forecast is mixed to higher as markets are expected to recover from selling pressure earlier this week. The European and U.S. markets were mixed and little changed and the Asian markets figure to open in similar fashion.

The TSE finished modestly lower on Wednesday following losses from the cement stocks, gains from the financials and mixed performances from the technology and plastics companies.

For the day, the index slipped 39.69 points or 0.25 percent to finish at 15,818.20 after trading between 15,740.98 and 15,821.49.

Among the actives, Mega Financial collected 0.45 percent, while CTBC Financial gained 0.44 percent, Fubon Financial gathered 0.33 percent, First Financial perked 0.19 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company shed 0.57 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation advanced 0.97 percent, Hon Hai Precision dropped 0.95 percent, Largan Precision added 0.61 percent, Catcher Technology rose 0.27 percent, MediaTek plunged 2.54 percent, Delta Electronics skidded 1.00 percent, Novatek Microelectronics dipped 0.23 percent, Formosa Plastics was up 0.44 percent, Nan Ya Plastics eased 0.13 percent, Asia Cement plummeted 2.92 percent, Taiwan Cement sank 0.53 percent and Cathay Financial and E Sun Financial were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street offers little clarity as spent most of Wednesday bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line, finally finishing mixed and little changed.

The Dow lost 58.06 points or 0.18 percent to finish at 32,798.40, while the NASDAQ gained 45.67 points or 0.40 percent to close at 11,576.00 and the S&P 500 perked 5.64 points or 0.14 percent to end at 3,992.01.

The choppy trading on Wall Street reflected uncertainty about the near-term outlook for the markets following Tuesday's sell-off, which reflected renewed concerns about the outlook for interest following remarks by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.

Traders may also have been reluctant to make significant moves ahead of the release of the closely watched monthly jobs report on Friday.

In economic news, payroll processor ADP said private sector employment in the U.S. increased more than expected in February. Also, the Labor Department said job openings in the U.S. fell to 10.8 million in January from 11.2 million in December.

Crude oil prices slipped on Wednesday, extending losses from the previous session amid concerns about outlook for energy demand following Powell's remarks to Congress. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for April ended lower by $0.92 or 1.2 percent at $76.66 a barrel.