Rally May Stall For Taiwan Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market has climbed higher in three straight sessions, gathering almost 160 points or 1 percent in that span. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now rests just above the 16,790-point plateau although it may run out of steam on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests mild consolidation on growth concerns. The European and U.S markets were down and the Asian markets are predicted to open in similar fashion.

The TSE finished barely higher on Tuesday following gains from the technology stocks, weakness from the financials and cement companies and a mixed performance from the plastics.

For the day, the index perked 1.91 points or 0.01 percent to finish at the daily high of 16,791.61 after moving as low as 16,727.44.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial lost 0.43 percent, while Mega Financial shed 0.55 percent, CTBC Financial collected 0.21 percent, Fubon Financial sank 0.64 percent, E Sun Financial slid 0.41 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company dropped 0.90 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation rallied 1.20 percent, Hon Hai Precision added 0.47 percent, Largan Precision surged 3.59 percent, Catcher Technology fell 0.28 percent, MediaTek advanced 0.98 percent, Delta Electronics improved 0.72 percent, Novatek Microelectronics soared 2.80 percent, Formosa Plastics gained 0.61 percent, Nan Ya Plastics dipped 0.15 percent, Asia Cement eased 0.12 percent, Taiwan Cement declined 0.57 percent, China Steel perked 0.18 percent and First Financial was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is weak as the major averages opened lower on Tuesday and largely remained in the red throughout the session.

The Dow dropped 195.74 points or 0.56 percent to finish at 34,641.97, while the NASDAQ dipped 10.86 points or 0.08 percent to close at 14,020.95 and the S&P 500 fell 18.94 points or 0.42 percent to end at 4,496.83.

Concerns about the outlook for global economy following the release of disappointing Chinese and European data weighed on the market. A firm dollar and higher Treasury yields hurt as well.

In economic news, the Commerce Department reported a significant pullback in factory orders in July.

Oil prices climbed higher on Tuesday after Saudi Arabia and Russia announced they will extend their voluntary production cuts by three months. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for October ended higher by $1.14 or about 1.3 percent at $86.69 a barrel.

Closer to home, Taiwan will provide August figures for consumer prices later today; in July, overall inflation was up 0.10 percent on month and 1.88 percent on year.