Lower Open Expected For Taiwan Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market has moved higher in two straight sessions, advancing almost 700 points or 3.2 percent along the way. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just above the 22,430-point plateau although it's looking at a soft start on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests little movement as geopolitical concerns appear to have taken a breather. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were mixed and flat and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The TSE finished sharply higher on Wednesday following mixed performance from the financial shares, technology stocks and plastics companies.

For the day, the index rallied 241.85 points or 1.09 percent to finish at 22,430.61 after trading between 22,284.52 and 22,417.54.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial dipped 0.16 percent, while Mega Financial advanced 0.99 percent, First Financial collected 0.88 percent, Fubon Financial shed 0.46 percent, E Sun Financial strengthened 1.25 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company jumped 1.90 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation plunged 3.42 percent, Hon Hai Precision improved 0.93 percent, Largan Precision lost 0.42 percent, Catcher Technology increased 0.71 percent, MediaTek spiked 1.97 percent, Delta Electronics rallied 1.56 percent, Novatek Microelectronics climbed 1.33 percent, Formosa Plastics fell 0.43 percent, Nan Ya Plastics gained 1.09 percent, Asia Cement eased 0.12 percent and CTBC Financial was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street offers little guidance as the major averages opened mixed and spent the whole day hugging the line before ending little changed.

The Dow dropped 106.59 points or 0.25 percent to finish at 42,982.43, while the NASDAQ added 61.02 points or 0.31 percent to close at 19,973.55 and the S&P 500 eased 0.02 points or 0.00 percent to end at 6,092.16.

The initial strength on Wall Street reflected recent upward momentum, which saw stocks move sharply higher over the two previous sessions.

Buying interest waned shortly after the start of trading, however, as traders continue to monitor developments in the Middle East following yesterday's news of a ceasefire between Israel and Iran. The subsequent pullback likely was profit taking after the major averages reached their highest intraday levels in four months.

In U.S. economic news, a report released by the Commerce Department showed a substantial pullback by new home sales in the U.S. in May.

Crude oil prices moved higher on Wednesday as an EIA report indicated a draw in crude oil inventories and a surge in U.S. gasoline demand to a three-and-a-half-year high. West Texas Intermediate crude oil for August delivery closed up by $0.55 to settle at $64.92 per barrel.