Taiwan Stock Market Overdue For Consolidation

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market has finished higher in seven straight sessions, surging almost 1,500 points or 6.3 percent along the way. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just beneath the 24,400-point plateau although investors figure to cash in on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests profit taking, particularly among the technology sectors. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The TSE finished sharply higher on Thursday following gains from the financial shares, technology stocks and plastics companies.

For the day, the index surged 382.95 points or 1.60 percent to finish at 24,390.95 after trading between 24,151.80 and 24,416.67.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial rallied 2.99 percent, while Mega Financial perked 0.24 percent, CTBC Financial retreated 1.47 percent, First Financial rose 0.35 percent, Fubon Financial surged 3.70 percent, E Sun Financial collected 0.83 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company accelerated 3.35 percent, Hon Hai Precision advanced 0.89 percent, Largan Precision spiked 2.89 percent, Catcher Technology climbed 1.14 percent, MediaTek skidded 1.05 percent, Delta Electronics soared 3.21 percent, Novatek Microelectronics strengthened 1.58 percent, Formosa Plastics improved 0,88 percent, Nan Ya Plastics and Asia Cement both jumped 1.46 percent and United Microelectronics Corporation was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is largely negative as the major averages opened lower on Thursday; the Dow inched barely into the green, while the S&P and NASDAQ retreated from record highs.

The Dow rose 32.39 points or 0.08 percent to finish at 39,753.75, while the NASDAQ plummeted 364.04 points or 1.95 percent to close at 18,283.41 and the S&P 500 sank 49.37 points or 0.88 percent to end at 5,584.54.

Optimism about the outlook for interest rates contributed to early strength on Wall Street, although it quickly waned as traders seem to have already priced in a rate cut in September.

The subsequent sell-off came as traders cashed in on the recent strength in the markets, with some of the biggest tech winners of the year like AI darling Nvidia (NVDA) leading the pullback.

Nonetheless, the Federal Reserve is still seen as likely to lower rates in September after a report from the Labor Department showing showed prices in the U.S. unexpectedly edged slightly lower in June.

Oil futures settled higher on Thursday, lifted by hopes of an interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve after the encouraging inflation data. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for August ended down $0.52 at $82.62 a barrel.