Rally May Stall For Taiwan Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market has climbed higher in three straight sessions, advancing more than 530 points or 2.4 percent along the way. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now rests just above the 23,540-point plateau although it may run out of steam on Tuesday. The global forecast for the Asian markets is negative with profit taking likely for many of the regions. The European and U.S. markets were mostly lower and the Asian bourses figure to follow that lead.

The TSE finished modestly higher again on Monday following gains from the technology stocks and a mixed picture from the financial sector. For the day, the index gained 55.26 points or 0.24 percent to finish at 23,542.53 after trading between 23,480.06 and 23,678.51. Among the actives, Cathay Financial slumped 2.15 percent, Mega Financial declined 1.26 percent, CTBC Financial and Fubon Financial both perked 0.17 percent, First Financial surrendered 1.27 percent, E Sun Financial plummeted 2.26 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation improved 0.79 percent, Hon Hai Precision climbed 1.20 percent, Largan Precision soared 3.23 percent, Catcher Technology tumbled 1.84 percent, MediaTek jumped 1.92 percent, Delta Electronics shed 0.50 percent, Novatek Microelectronics rallied 1.91 percent, Formosa Plastics stumbled 1.87 percent, Nan Ya Plastics plunged 3.24 percent, Asia Cement retreated 1.26 percent and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is mixed to soft as the major averages opened lower on Monday and largely stayed that way, although the NASDAQ broke into the green late in the day.

The Dow stumbled 344.25 points or 0.80 percent to finish at 42,931.25, while the NASDAQ gained 50.45 points or 0.27 percent to close at 18,540.01 and the S&P 500 fell 10.69 points or 0.18 percent to end at 5,853.98.

The mixed performance on Wall Street came as profit taking brought the Dow down from a record closing high, while tech shares boosted the NASDAQ to a three-month closing high.

Overall trading activity was relatively subdued as traders looked ahead to the release of a slew of corporate earnings news from big-name companies later this week.

In economic news, the Conference Board said its reading on leading U.S. economic indicators fell by more than expected in the month of September.

Oil prices moved higher on Monday on possible disruptions in supplies due to escalating tensions in the Middle East. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for November ended up by $1.34 or 1.94 percent at $70.56 a barrel.