Win Streak Expected To End For Taiwan Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market has tracked higher in consecutive trading days, advancing more than 270 points or 1.9 percent along the way. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now rests just above the 14,440-point plateau although it may spin its wheels on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft on continuing concerns over the health of the world economy. The European and U.S. markets were sharply lower and the Asian markets are expected to follow that lead.

The TSE finished sharply higher on Thursday following gains from the financials, cement companies and technology stocks.

For the day, the index spiked 208.54 points or 1.47 percent to finish at the daily high of 14,442.94 after moving as low as 14,323.04.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial and Hon Hai Precision both advanced 1.00 percent, while Mega Financial increased 1.15 percent, CTBC Financial spiked 2.07 percent, Fubon Financial and MediaTek both climbed 1.07 percent, First Financial collected 0.38 percent, E Sun Financial gained 1.04 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company jumped 1.96 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation rallied 2.02 percent, Largan Precision tanked 2.06 percent, Catcher Technology soared 2.99 percent, Delta Electronics improved 1.06 percent, Novatek Microelectronics strengthened 1.34 percent, Formosa Plastics accelerated 2.11 percent, Nan Ya Plastics gathered 1.28 percent, Asia Cement surged 2.22 percent and Taiwan Cement jumped 1.17 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is broadly negative as the major averages opened deep in the red and the losses accelerated as the day progressed.

The Dow tumbled 348.99 points or 1.05 percent to finish at 33,037.49, while the NASDAQ plunged 233.25 points or 2.18 percent to close at 10,476.12 and the S&P 500 dropped 56.05 points or 1.45 percent to end at 3,822.39.

The pullback on Wall Street came as some traders cashed in on Wednesday's gains amid ongoing concerns about the outlook for interest rates and the global economy.

Stocks saw further downside following the release of a report from the Conference Board showing a continued slump by its reading on leading U.S. economic indicators in the month of November.

Crude oil futures pared early gains and settled lower on Thursday, snapping a three-day winning streak as the dollar advanced on rate hike bets. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for February ended $0.80 lower at $77.49 a barrel, falling from a high of $79.90 a barrel.

Closer to home, Taiwan will see November numbers for industrial production and M2 money supply later today. In October, output was down 3.56 percent on year, while the money supply climbed 7.32 percent.