Tech Bargain Hunting May Lift Taiwan Shares

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market on Thursday ended the three-day losing streak in which it had plummeted more than 1,170 points or 5.3 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now rests just shy of the 21,190-point plateau and it may tick higher again on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests little movement ahead of key U.S. jobs data later today. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were mixed and flat and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The TSE finished modestly higher on Thursday following gains from the financials, weakness from the plastics and a mixed picture from the technology companies.

For the day, the index advanced 94.96 points or 0.45 percent to finish at 21,187.71 after trading between 21,150.99 and 21,488.81.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial rallied 1.30 percent, while Mega Financial improved 1.45 percent, CTBC Financial improved 0.78 percent, First Financial collected 0.56 percent, Fubon Financial jumped 1.99 percent, E Sun Financial perked 0.18 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company strengthened 1.46 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation climbed 1.13 percent, Hon Hai Precision tanked 2.51 percent, Catcher Technology surged 4.88 percent, MediaTek surrendered 2.20 percent, Delta Electronics sank 0.81 percent, Novatek Microelectronics fell 0.38 percent, Formosa Plastics slumped 1.70 percent, Nan Ya Plastics plunged 2.84 percent, Asia Cement advanced 0.90 percent and Largan Precision was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street remains conflicted as the major averages opened mixed on Thursday and hugged the line for most of the day, finally ending little changed.

The Dow shed 219.22 points or 0.54 percent to finish at 40,755.75, while the NASDAQ added 43.36 points or 0.25 percent to close at 17,127.66 and the S&P 500 sank 16.66 points or 0.30 percent to end at 5,503.41.

The mixed performance on Wall Street followed the release of mixed readings on employment ahead of the release of the Labor Department's closely watched monthly jobs report later today.

Economists expect employment to add 160,000 jobs in August after rising by 114,000 jobs in July. The unemployment rate is expected to ease to 4.2 percent in August from 4.3 percent in July, which was its highest level since October 2021.

Before the start of trading, payroll processor ADP released a report showing private sector employment in the U.S. increased by much less than expected in the month of August.

Crude oil futures settled lower on Thursday due to concerns about the outlook for demand, although the downside was limited by reports that OPEC has postponed plans to boost production next month. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for October ended down by $0.05 at $69.15 a barrel, the lowest settlement in about nine months.