Taiwan Stock Market May Reverse Friday's Losses

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market on Friday wrote a finish to the seven-day winning streak in which it had surged almost 1,500 points or 6.3 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just beneath the 23,920-point plateau although it may find traction on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is positive, with bargain hunting expected in the technology sectors. The European and U.S. markets were up and the Asian bourses figure to follow that lead.

The TSE finished sharply lower on Friday following heavy losses from the technology stocks and a mixed picture from the financial sector.

For the day, the index plunged 473.07 points or 1.94 percent to finish at 23,916.93 after trading between 23,774.22 and 24,045.73.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial added 0.31 percent, while Mega Financial collected 0.72 percent, CTBC Financial eased 0.12 percent, First Financial and E Sun Financial both rose 0.17 percent, Fubon Financial shed 0.54 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company plunged 3.70 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation tumbled 3.11 percent, Hon Hai Precision tanked 4.21 percent, Largan Precision slumped 4.22 percent, Catcher Technology climbed 1.35 percent, MediaTek plummeted 4.23 percent, Delta Electronics retreated 2.76 percent, Novatek Microelectronics declined 2.07 percent, Formosa Plastics rallied 1.58 percent, Nan Ya Plastics surged 2.87 percent and Asia Cement jumped 1.44 percent.

The lead from all Street is upbeat as the major averages opened higher and remained well into the green throughout the session.

The Dow rallied 247.10 points or 0.62 percent to finish at 40,000.90, while the NASDAQ climbed 115.04 points or 0.63 percent to end at 18,398.45 and the S&P 500 gained 30.81 points or 0.55 percent to close at 5,615.35.

For the week, the Dow shot up 1.6 percent, the S&P 500 jumped 0.9 percent and the NASDAQ rose 0.3 percent.

The rebound on Wall Street came as traders looked to pick up stocks at somewhat reduced levels following the steep drop on Thursday, which partly reflected a rotation out of leading tech stocks like Nvidia (NVDA).

Traders also remained optimistic about the outlook for interest rates even though the Labor Department said producer prices in the U.S. increased by slightly more than expected in June.

Oil futures settled lower on Friday, weighed down by data showing a bigger than expected increase in U.S. producer prices in June. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for August ended down by $0.41 at $82.21 a barrel.