Rally May Stall For Taiwan Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market has finished higher in two straight sessions, rallying more than 210 points or 1.1 percent along the way. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just beneath the 18,890-point plateau although it may spin its wheels on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is cautiously optimistic on optimism over earnings, although profit taking may take hold later in the day. The European and U.S. markets saw mostly modest gains and the Asian bourses figure to follow that lead.

The TSE finished slightly higher on Friday following a mixed performance from the technology stocks and weakness from the financials and plastics.

For the day, the index added 36.39 points or 0.19 percent to finish at the daily low of 18,889.19 after peaking at 19,012.38.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial skidded 1.00 percent, while Mega Financial sank 0.65 percent, CTBC Financial retreated 1.37 percent, Fubon Financial collected 0.15 percent, First Financial slid 0.37 percent, E. Sun Financial slumped 0.41 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company improved 0.72 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation dropped 0.93 percent, Hon Hai Precision shed 0.48 percent, MediaTek skyrocketed 8.37 percent, Largan Precision added 0.59 percent, Delta Electronics fell 0.34 percent, Catcher Technology tumbled 2.00 percent, Novatek Microelectronics lost 0.68 percent, Taiwan Cement weakened 0.46 percent, Asia Cement dipped 0.50 percent, Formosa Plastics stumbled 1.64 percent, Nan Ya Plastics declined 1.32 percent and China Steel was down 0.60 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is uninspired as the major averages opened solidly higher on Friday but faded as the day progressed, with the NASDAQ finishing in the red.

The Dow added 62.43 points or 0.16 percent to finish at 39,131.53, while the NASDAQ sank 44.78 points or 0.28 percent to close at 15,996.82 and the S&P 500 rose 1.77 points or 0.03 percent to end at 5,088.80.

For the holiday-shortened week, the S&P 500 surged 1.7 percent, the NASDAQ jumped 1.4 percent and the Dow advanced 1.3 percent.

The early upward move reflected an extension of the rally seen in during Thursday's session, which came on the heels of upbeat earnings news from AI darling Nvidia (NVDA).

Buying interest waned shortly after the start of trading, however, as traders took a breather following Thursday's surge.

Crude oil futures settled sharply lower on Friday as concerns about the outlook for demand and the recent data showing a jump in U.S. crude inventories weighed on prices. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for April dropped $2.12 or 2.65 percent at $76.49 a barrel.