Taiwan Stock Market Due For Consolidation

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market has moved higher in five straight sessions, collecting more than 1,100 points or 5 percent along the way. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just above the 22,760-point plateau although investors figure to lock in gains on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is negative, with many of the overbought regional bourses likely to see profit taking. The European and U.S. markets were mostly lower and the Asian markets figure to follow that lead.

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

For the day, the index soared 329.82 points or 1.47 percent to finish at 22,761.60 after trading between 22,569.29 and 22,785.32.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial rallied 1.21 percent, while Mega Financial perked 0.13 percent, CTBC Financial dipped 0.14 percent, First Financial gained 0.54 percent, Fubon Financial collected 0.76 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company jumped 1.82 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation climbed 1.11 percent, Hon Hai Precision accelerated 3.01 percent, Largan Precision advanced 0.96 percent, Catcher Technology added 0.64 percent, MediaTek spiked 2.51 percent, Delta Electronics rose 0.25 percent, Novatek Microelectronics dropped 0.96 percent, Formosa Plastics surged 4.33 percent, Nan Ya Plastics strengthened 1.28 percent, Asia Cement improved 1.33 percent and E Sun Financial was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened mixed on Wednesday but trended lower throughout the session, finally ending mostly in the red.

The Dow stumbled 293.47 points or 0.70 percent to finish at 41,914.75, while the NASDAQ perked 7.68 points or 0.04 percent to close at 18,082.21 and the S&P 500 dipped 10.67 points or 0.19 percent to end at 5,722.26.

The mixed performance on Wall Street came as traders expressed some uncertainty about the near-term outlook for the markets following recent strength, which has lifted the Dow and the S&P 500 to record highs.

In economic news, the Commerce Department released a report showing new home sales pulled back sharply in the month of August.

Data on weekly jobless claims, durable goods orders and personal income and spending are due later this week, while Fed Chair Jerome Powell's speech later today is also in focus.

Oil prices fell sharply Wednesday on uncertainty about the outlook for demand and easing concerns over supply disruptions in Libya. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for November sank $1.87 or 2.6 percent at $69.69 a barrel.