Continued Selling Pressure Called For Taiwan Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market has finished lower in two of three trading days since the end of the three-day winning streak in which it had picked up almost 500 points or 2.9 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now rests just above the 14,560-point plateau and it may take further damage on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft on fears for the global economy and concerns over the outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian markets are tipped to open in similar fashion.

The TSE finished modestly lower on Friday following losses from the financial shares, technology stocks and cement companies.

For the day, the index shed 108.24 points or 0.74 percent to finish at 14,561.76 after trading between 14,521.65 and 14,602.16.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial lost 0.70 percent, while Mega Financial eased 0.14 percent, CTBC Financial sank 0.90 percent, Fubon Financial fell 0.53 percent, First Financial jumped 1.70 percent, E Sun Financial declined 0.54 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company dropped 0.94 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation skidded 1.11 percent, Hon Hai Precision shed 0.46 percent, Largan Precision tumbled 2.07 percent, Catcher Technology dipped 0.29 percent, MediaTek tanked 2.60 percent, Delta Electronics surrendered 2.22 percent, Formosa Plastics slumped 1.82 percent, Asia Cement retreated 1.45 percent, Taiwan Cement plunged 2.40 percent and Nan Ya Plastics was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened firmly lower and stayed that was throughout the session.

The Dow slumped 139.38 points or 0.45 percent to finish at 30,822.42, while the NASDAQ dropped 104.00 points or 0.90 percent to close at 11,448.40 and the S&P 500 fell 28.02 points or 0.72 percent to end at 3,873.33.

For the week, the Dow tumbled 4.1 percent, the S&P 500 plunged 4.8 percent and the NASDAQ plummeted 5.5 percent.

A steep drop by shares of FedEx (FDX) fueled the weakness on Wall Street, with the delivery giant plunging 21.4 percent to a two-year closing low. The sell-off by FedEx came after the company reported weaker than expected preliminary fiscal Q1 results and withdrew its full-year guidance.

Concerns about the outlook for interest rates also continued to weigh on the markets ahead of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy decision this week. The Fed is widely expected to raise interest rates by another 75 basis points, although some see an outside chance for a 100-point rate hike.

Crude oil futures settled roughly flat on Friday following the resumption of oil exports from Iraq's Basra oil terminal, where a spillage had forced disruptions. West Texas Intermediate Crude futures for October settled at $85.11 a barrel, up $0.01 from the previous close. WTI crude futures shed nearly 2 percent in the week.