Taiwan Shares Poised To Open Under Pressure On Tuesday

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market on Monday halted the two-day winning streak in which it had jumped more than 440 points or 2.2 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just beneath the 20,200-point plateau and it's expected to see continued consolidation on Tuesday. The global forecast for the Asian markets is weak, although losses from the technology stocks may be mitigated by support from the oil companies. The European markets were mixed and flat and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to split the difference. The TSE finished modestly lower on Monday as losses from the financial shares and technology stocks were offset by gains from the plastics companies. For the day, the index fell 36.18 points or 0.18 percent to finish at 20,192.25 after trading between 20,172.80 and 20,285.38.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial dropped 0.93 percent, while Mega Financial eased 0.25 percent, CTBC Financial shed 0.63 percent, First Financial collected 0.36 percent, Fubon Financial sank 0.86 percent, E Sun Financial dipped 0.18 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company lost 0.64 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation slumped 1.15 percent, Largan Precision added 0.41 percent, Catcher Technology skidded 1.17 percent, MediaTek fell 0.44 percent, Delta Electronics retreated 1.54 percent, Novatek Microelectronics declined 0.84 percent, Formosa Plastics climbed 1.19 percent, Nan Ya Plastics advanced 0.91 percent, Asia Cement perked 0.12 percent, Taiwan Cement was down 0.20 percent, China Steel slid 0.42 percent and Hon Hai Precision was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened in the red on Monday and largely remained under water throughout the trading day.

The Dow dropped 162.26 points or 0.41 percent to finish at 39,313.64, while the NASDAQ sank 44.35 points or 0.27 percent to close at 16,384.47 and the S&P 500 fell 15.99 points or 0.31 percent to end at 5,218.19.

Weakness among technology stocks weighed on the markets, with semiconductor giant Intel (INTC) plunging by as much as 4.7 percent after reports suggested that China has introduced new guidelines to phase microprocessors from Intel and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) out of government PCs and servers.

Selling pressure remained relatively subdued, however, as traders seemed reluctant to make more significant moves ahead of the release of some key economic data in the coming days, including key inflation numbers on Friday.

In economic news, the Commerce Department released a report showing new home sales in the U.S. unexpectedly decreased in February.

Oil prices moved higher on Monday amid concerns about supply disruptions after Ukraine continued to attack Russian refineries. A weak dollar amid expectations of interest rate cuts by central banks contributed as well to the rise in oil prices. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for May ended higher by $1.32 or 1.64 percent at $81.95 a barrel.