Taiwan Bourse May See Renewed Consolidation On Wednesday

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market on Tuesday wrote a finish to the five-day losing streak in which it had plunged more than 740 points or 4.5 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now rests just above the 16,450-point plateau although it may head south again on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft on concerns about economic outlook and expectations for interest rates. The Eruopean and U.S. markets were solidly lower and the Asian markets are expected to follow suit.

The TSE finished modestly higher on Tuesday as gains from the technology stocks were capped by weakness from the financials and cement companies.

For the day, the index added 61.14 points or 0.37 percent to finish at 16,454.80 after trading between 16,437.63 and 16,546.01.

Among the actives, Mega Financial retreated 1.21 percent, while CTBC Financial stumbled 1.65 percent, First Financial slumped 1.30 percent, Fubon Financial lost 0.63 percent, E Sun Financial declined 1.38 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company perked 0.18 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation climbed 1.00 percent, Hon Hai Precision tanked 2.73 percent, Catcher Technology shed 0.58 percent, MediaTek advanced 0.89 percent, Delta Electronics rose 0.29 percent, Novatek Microelectronics eased 0.13 percent, Formosa Plastics sank 0.72 percent, Nan Ya Plastics dropped 0.87 percent, Asia Cement tumbled 1.61 percent, Taiwan Cement fell 0.41 percent, China Steel dipped 0.37 percent and Largan Precision and Cathay Financial were unchanged.

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

The Dow tumbled 361.24 points or 1.02 percent to finish at 34,946.39, while the NASDAQ slumped 157.28 points or 1.14 percent to close at 13,631.05 and the S&P 500 sank 51.86 points or 1.16 percent to end at 4,437.86.

Worries about the health of the Chinese economy, and concerns that the Federal Reserve will hold interest rates higher for a longer time to contain inflation weigh on sentiment.

A warning from Fitch that it may have to downgrade credit ratings of several banks, including JP Morgan, is hurting as well.

Oil prices fell sharply Tuesday on concerns about the outlook for energy demand following a batch of weak economic data from China. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for September sank $1.52 or 1.8 percent at $80.99 a barrel.