Taiwan Stock Market May Extend Its Gains

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market has climbed higher in two straight sessions, advancing more than 475 points or 2.1 percent along the way. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now rests just beneath the 23,490-point plateau and it's tipped to open in the green again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian market is upbeat on generally upbeat earnings news. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets figure to also move higher.

The TSE finished sharply higher on Friday following gains from the financial shares and mixed performances from the technology and plastics companies.

For the day, the index jumped 433.43 points or 1.88 percent to finish at 23,487.27 after trading between 23,378.36 and 23,713.70.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial gained 1.75 percent, while Mega Financial collected 0.89 percent, CTBC Financial climbed 1.10 percent, First Financial improved 1.66 percent, Fubon Financial strengthened 1.75 percent, E Sun Financial jumped 1.95 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company surged 4.83 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation stumbled 2.32 percent, Hon Hai Precision shed 0.48 percent, Largan Precision plummeted 8.64 percent, Catcher Technology rallied 1.66 percent, MediaTek accelerated 2.35 percent, Delta Electronics spiked 2.55 percent, Formosa Plastics fell 0.41 percent, Nan Ya Plastics added 0.82 percent, Asia Cement advanced 1.28 percent and Novatek Microelectronics was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is positive as the major averages opened mixed on Friday but moved steadily higher as the day progressed, ending near session highs.

The Dow added 36.86 points or 0.09 percent to finish at a fresh record of 43,275.91, while the NASDAQ climbed 115.94 points or 0.63 percent to end at 18,489.55 and the S&P 500 rose 23.20 points or 0.40 percent to close at 5,864.67. For the week, the Dow added 1.0 percent, the S&P gained 0.9 percent and the NASDAQ rose 0.8 percent.

The NASDAQ benefitted from a sharp increase by shares of Netflix (NFLX), as the streaming giant soared by 11.1 percent to a record closing high after the company reported Q3 results that beat estimates on both the top and bottom lines.

Meanwhile, a steep drop by shares of American Express (AXP) limited the upside for the Dow, with the credit card giant tumbling by 3.2 percent after the company reported Q3 earnings that beat expectations but weaker than expected revenues.

In U.S. economic news, the Commerce Department reported a modest pullback by housing starts and building permits in September.

Oil prices fell on Friday following downward revisions in oil demand forecast from OPEC and the International Energy Agency. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for November sank $1.45 or 2.05 percent at $69.22 a barrel. WTI crude futures fell more than 8 percent in the week.

Closer to home, Taiwan will provide September figures for export orders later today; in August, orders were up 9.1 percent on year.