Taiwan Stock Market Poised To Extend Winning Streak

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market has moved higher in six straight sessions, improving almost 540 points or 3.3 percent along the way. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just above the 17,200-point plateau and it's got another firm lead for Tuesday's trade.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat on continued optimism over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were mixed and little changed and the U.S. bourses were solidly higher and the Asian markets are tipped to follow the latter lead.

The TSE finished barely higher on Monday following mixed performances from the financial shares, technology stocks and cement companies.

For the day, the index perked 1.52 points or 0.01 percent to finish at 17,210.47 after trading between 17,151.82 and 17,219.76.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial fell 0.22 percent, while First Financial shed 0.36 percent, Fubon Financial collected 0.47 percent, E Sun Financial perked 0.20 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company shed 0.52 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation climbed 1.11 percent, Hon Hai Precision retreated 1.46 percent, Largan Precision surged 3.54 percent, Catcher Technology jumped 1.31 percent, MediaTek advanced 0.88 percent, Delta Electronics rose 0.33 percent, Novatek Microelectronics sank 0.71 percent, Nan Ya Plastics slumped 1.17 percent, Asia Cement slid 0.24 percent, Taiwan Cement improved 1.20 percent, China Steel added 0.40 percent and Mega Financial, CTBC Financial and Formosa Plastics were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is solid as the major averages opened modestly higher on Monday but accelerated throughout the day, ending near session highs.

The Dow jumped 203.76 points or 0.58 percent to finish at 35,151.04, while the NASDAQ rallied 159.05 points or 1.13 percent to close at 14,284.53 and the S&P 500 gained 33.36 points or 0.74 percent to end at 4,547.38.

The strength on Wall Street reflected recent upward momentum, which comes amid ongoing optimism about the outlook for interest rates. Recent data showing signs of easing inflation has reinforced investor expectations that the Federal Reserve will leave rates unchanged at upcoming meetings.

Stocks saw further upside in afternoon trading as treasury yields pulled back following the release of the results of the Treasury Department's auction of $16 billion worth of 20-year bonds.

In economic news, the Conference Board released a report showing its reading on leading U.S. economic indicators fell by more than expected in October.

Crude oil prices rose sharply on Monday amid expectations that OPEC will further extend its voluntary output cuts next week, while the dollar's weakness also contributed to the jump in oil prices. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for January ended higher by $1.79 or 2.4 percent at $77.83 a barrel.