Taiwan Stock Market May Spin Its Wheels On Tuesday

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market has tracked higher in back-to-back sessions, gathering almost 250 points or 1 percent along the way. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just above the 24,480-point plateau although it may be stuck in neutral on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is murky as investors wait for developments in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. The European and U.S. markets were mixed and flat and the Asian bourses figure to follow suit.

The TSE finished modestly higher on Monay following gains from the finance and plastics companies, while the technology stocks were mixed.

For the day, the index improved 148.04 points or 0.61 percent to finish at 24,482.52 after trading between 24,257.30 and 24,515.65.

Among the actives, Mega Financial climbed 1.06 percent, while First Financial perked 0.17 percent, E Sun Financial advanced 1.03 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation stumbled 1.94 percent, Hon Hai Precision strengthened 1.45 percent, Largan Precision added 0.42 percent, Catcher Technology tumbled 2.00 percent, MediaTek rallied 2.92 percent, Delta Electronics rose 0.29 percent, Novatek Microelectronics retreated 1.28 percent, Formosa Plastics jumped 1.64 percent, Nan Ya Plastics surged 7.68 percent, Asia Cement shed 0.63 percent and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Cathay Financial, CTBC Financial and Fubon Financial were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street offers little guidance as the major averages opened mixed but moved little, hugging the line all day and ending on opposite sides.

The Dow shed 34.30 points or 0.08 percent to finish at 44,911.82, while the NASDAQ rose 6.80 points or 0.03 percent to close at 21,629.77 and the S&P 500 eased 0.65 points or 0.01 percent to end at 6,449.15.

The choppy trading on Wall Street came as traders kept an eye on the White House, where President Donald Trump met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other European leaders.

The meetings at the White House come after Trump's meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin last Friday which failed to result in a concrete agreement to end the conflict in Ukraine.

On the U.S. economic front, the National Association of Home Builders reported a modest deterioration by U.S. homebuilder confidence in the month of August.

Crude oil priced climbed on Monday as investors focused their attention on the meeting between the U.S. and Ukrainian presidents amid rising geopolitical tensions surrounding the Russian invasion of Ukraine. West Texas Intermediate crude for September delivery was up $0.60 or 0.96 percent at $63.40 per barrel.