Taiwan Shares May Be Stuck In Neutral On Wednesday

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market has climbed higher in three straight sessions, gathering more than 100 points or 0.7 percent along the way. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now rests just above the 15,910-point plateau, although it's expected to open under pressure on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is cloudy and fairly flat amidst a lack of catalysts. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were mixed and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The TSE finished modestly higher on Tuesday following gains from the financial shares, cement stocks and plastics companies, while the technology issues were mixed.

For the day, the index added 37.71 points or 0.24 percent to finish at 15,913.88 after trading between 15,838.10 and 15,945.63.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial was up 0.24 percent, while Mega Financial collected 0.45 percent, CTBC Financial perked 0.23 percent, First Financial rose 0.38 percent, E Sun Financial climbed 1.00 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company dropped 0.95 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation skidded 0.96 percent, Hon Hai Precision added 0.49 percent, Largan Precision improved 0.70 percent, Catcher Technology fell 0.27 percent, MediaTek jumped 1.89 percent, Delta Electronics strengthened 1.36 percent, Novatek Microelectronics surged 3.58 percent, Formosa Plastics gained 0.54 percent, Nan Ya Plastics gathered 0.26 percent, Asia Cement jumped 1.16 percent, Taiwan Cement soared 2.32 percent and Fubon Financial and China Steel were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street continues to be mixed as the Dow opened higher and stayed that way, the NASDAQ opened lower and stayed that way and the S&P 500 hugged the line all day and finished barely in the red.

The Dow added 98.27 points or 0.29 percent to finish at 33,684.79, while the NASDAQ shed 52.48 points or 0.43 percent to close at 12,031.88 and the S&P 500 eased 0.17 points or 0.00 percent to end at 4,108.94.

A lack of major U.S. economic data kept some traders on the sidelines ahead of the release of several key reports in the coming days.

The Labor Department's report on consumer price inflation in the month of March is due to be released later today and could have a significant impact on the outlook for interest rates.

Crude oil prices surged Tuesday on optimism for additional Chinese economic stimulus after soft inflation data from China created room for its central bank to potentially ease its monetary policy. West Texas Intermediate crude for May delivery surged $1.79 to $81.53 a barrel.