Rally May Stall For Taiwan Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market has finished higher in three straight sessions, rallying more than 270 points or 1.4 percent along the way. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just beneath the 18,950-point plateau although investors may lock in gains on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is cautious ahead of key economic data later this week. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The TSE finished modestly higher on Monday following gains from the plastics and mixed performances from the financial shares and technology stocks.

For the day, the index added 58.86 points or 0.31 percent to finish at 18,948.05 after trading between 18,854.71 and 18,974.08.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial lost 0.34 percent, while Mega Financial dipped 0.39 percent, CTBC Financial gained 0.69 percent, First Financial dropped 0.92 percent, Fubon Financial collected 0.45 percent, E Sun Financial eased 0.20 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company perked 0.14 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation fell 0.31 percent, Hon Hai Precision added 0.49 percent, Largan Precision soared 3.14 percent, Catcher Technology shed 0.51 percent, MediaTek strengthened 1.36 percent, Delta Electronics advanced 0.85 percent, Novatek Microelectronics improved 0.69 percent, Formosa Plastics gathered 0.14 percent, Nan Ya Plastics gained 0.34 percent, Asia Cement rose 0.12 percent, Taiwan Cement sank 0.77 percent and China Steel was down 0.40 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is weak as the major averages opened slightly higher on Monday but faded as the day progressed, ending with mild losses.

The Dow shed 62.30 points or 0.16 percent to finish at 39,069.23, while the NASDAQ lost 20.57 points or 0.13 percent to close at 15,976.25 and the S&P 500 fell 19.27 points or 0.38 percent to end at 5,069.53.

The choppy trading on Wall Street comes as traders seem be reluctant to make significant moves as they digest last week's gains, which lifted the Dow and S&P 500 to new record highs.

Traders were also cautious ahead of key inflation reports later this week from Germany, France and Spain - as well as the U.S. Federal Reserve's favored core measure of personal consumption expenditure prices.

In economic news, the Commerce Department reported a continued rebound in new home sales in the U.S. in January, although the increase fell short of estimates.

Oil prices pared early losses and climbed higher on Monday as continued attacks by Houthi militants in the Red Sea route raised concerns about supply. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for April ended higher by $1.09 or 1.4 percent at $77.58 a barrel.

Closer to home, Taiwan will provide January results later today for export orders and Q4 data for current account. Export orders are expected to sink 3.6 percent on year after tumbling 16.0 percent in December. The current account surplus in Q3 was $27.22 billion.