Taiwan Shares Tipped To End Losing Streak

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market has moved lower in back-to-back sessions, slipping more than 500 points or 2.1 percent along the way. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just beneath the 23,880-point plateau although it may stop the bleeding on Tuesday. The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat on optimism over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The TSE finished slightly lower on Monday following losses from the plastics and mixed performances from the financial shares and technology stocks.

For the day, the index shed 37.57 points or 0.16 percent to finish at 23,879.36 after trading between 23,759.51 and 24,018.31. Among the actives, Cathay Financial skidded 1.07 percent, while Mega Financial dipped 0.24 percent, CTBC Financial climbed 1.10 percent, Fubon Financial slumped 1.09 percent, E Sun Financial collected 0.33 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation improved 0.75 percent, Hon Hai Precision rose 0.23 percent, Largan Precision jumped 1.79 percent, Catcher Technology declined 1.11 percent, MediaTek fell 0.37 percent, Delta Electronics retreated 1.66 percent, Novatek Microelectronics sank 0.71 percent, Formosa Plastics dropped 1.04 percent, Nan Ya Plastics lost 0.90 percent, Asia Cement shed 0.55 percent and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is positive as the major averages opened higher on Monday and stayed that way throughout the session to hit fresh record closing highs in somewhat choppy trade.

The Dow rallied 210.82 points or 0.53 percent to finish at 40,211.72, while the NASDAQ gained 74.12 points or 0.40 percent to close at 18,472.57 and the S&P 500 rose 15.87 points or 0.28 percent to end at 5,631.22.

The support on Wall Street was due largely to comments from Fed Chair Jerome Powell, who said that the central bank will not wait until inflation hits 2 percent to cut interest rates.

On the economic front, a report released by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York showed regional manufacturing activity contracted at a slightly faster rate in July.

Crude oil futures settled lower on Monday, weighed down by weighed down by political uncertainty following an assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump and weak economic data from China. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for August ended down $0.30 at $81.91 a barrel.