Renewed Support Expected For Taiwan Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market turned lower again on Friday, one session after snapping the two-day slide in which it had dropped more than 630 points or 2.9 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now rests just above the 22,300-point plateau although it figures to bounce higher again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat following the release of strong U.S. employment data. The European and U.S. markets were up and the Asian bourses are expected to open in similar fashion.

The TSE finished modestly lower on Friday as the financial shares and technology stocks ended mostly in the red.

For the day, the index sank 87.69 points or 0.39 percent to finish at 22,302.71 after trading between 22,193.50 and 22,493.05.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial skidded 1.05 percent, while Mega Financial retreated 1.27 percent, CTBC Financial stumbled 1.30 percent, First Financial eased 0.18 percent, E Sun Financial tanked 2.27 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company added 0.51 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation tumbled 2.05 percent, Hon Hai Precision surged 3.74 percent, Largan Precision plunged 2.67 percent, Catcher Technology surrendered 2.51 percent, MediaTek jumped 1.65 percent, Delta Electronics plummeted 4.81 percent, Novatek Microelectronics rallied 1.35 percent, Asia Cement gained 0.42 percent and Fubon Financial, Formosa Plastics and Nan Ya Plastics were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is positive as the major averages opened higher on Friday and remained well in the green throughout the trading day.

The Dow jumped 341.15 points or 0.81 percent to finish at a record 42,352.75, while the NASDAQ rallied 219.35 points or 1.22 percent to end at 18,137.85 and the S&P 500 advanced 51.13 points or 0.90 percent to close at 5,751.

The support on Wall Street came after the Labor Department said non-farm payroll employment jumped by 254,000 jobs in September after rising by an upwardly revised 159,000 jobs in August.

The stronger than expected jobs growth eased concerns about the economic outlook, but dashed hopes of aggressive rate cuts in the coming months.

Following the jobs data, CME Group's FedWatch Tool is indicating a 91.2% the Fed will lower rates by a quarter point in November and just a 8.8 percent chance of another half point rate cut.

Oil futures settled higher on Friday on concerns about a possible attack on Iran's oil facilities by Israel, while upbeat U.S. jobs data also supported oil prices. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for November added $0.67 or 0.91 percent at $74.38 a barrel, a five-week high. WTI crude futures gained more than 9 percent in the week.