Rally May Stall For Taiwan Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market has moved higher in consecutive trading days, gathering more than 200 points or 1.2 percent along the way. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just above the 16,710-point plateau although it's likely to open under pressure on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft, with profit taking anticipated. The European and U.S. markets finished under water and the Asian bourses are tipped to follow suit. The TSE finished slightly higher on Monday following gains from the financial shares, cement companies and plastics, while the technology stocks were mixed.

For the day, the index added 7.52 points or 0.05 percent to finish at 16,714.43 after trading between 16,703.60 and 16,781.19.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial rallied 1.80 percent, while Mega Financial collected 1.66 percent, CTBC Financial added 0.62 percent, First Financial gained 0.54 percent, Fubon Financial spiked 1.82 percent, E Sun Financial increased 1.35 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company retreated 1.25 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation dropped 0.97 percent, Hon Hai Precision shed 0.46 percent, Largan Precision improved 1.10 percent, Catcher Technology shed 0.53 percent, MediaTek climbed 1.07 percent, Delta Electronics strengthened 1.43 percent, Novatek Microelectronics jumped 1.62 percent, Formosa Plastics perked 0.32 percent, Nan Ya Plastics was up 0.77 percent, Asia Cement rose 0.68 percent, Taiwan Cement gathered 0.78 percent and China Steel accelerated 0.68 percent.

The lead from Wall Street ends up negative as the major averages opened higher on Monday, but a late slump sent them all into the red the close.

The Dow tumbled 199.90 points or 0.59 percent to finish at 33,562.86, while the NASDAQ slipped 11.34 points or 0.09 percent to close at 13,229.43 and the S&P 500 fell 8.58 points or 0.20 percent to end at 4,273.79.

The choppy trading on Wall Street came as some traders looked to take a break after the passage of legislation raising the U.S. debt ceiling and the release of the closely watched monthly jobs report.

Trading activity may remain somewhat subdued this week as traders look ahead to next week's Federal Reserve meeting; the Fed is widely expected to pause its recent series of interest rate hikes.

In economic news, the Institute for Supply Management said service sector activity in the U.S. saw only modest growth last month, with the index of activity in the sector falling by more than expected. Also, the Commerce Department said new orders for U.S. manufactured goods increased less than expected in April.

Crude oil prices settled higher Monday after Saudi Arabia, the world's largest crude exporter, pledged to cut its production by another 1 million barrels per day in July. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures ended higher by $0.41 or 0.6 percent at $72.15 a barrel, off the intra-day high of $75.06.