Taiwan Stock Market May Challenge 20,000-Point Mark

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market moved higher again on Monday, one session after halting the three-day winning streak in which it had advanced more than 210 points or 1.1 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just beneath the 19,880-point plateau and it's expected to open in the green again on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat, with support expected from technology and oil stocks. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The TSE finished sharply higher on Monday following gains from the technology stocks, weakness from the financials and a mixed picture from the plastics companies.

For the day, the index climbed 197.35 points or 1.00 percent to finish at 19,879.85 after trading between 19,706.11 and 19,879.86.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial dipped 0.21 percent, while Mega Financial sank 0.73 percent, CTBC Financial dropped 0.79 percent, First Financial lost 0.54 percent, Fubon Financial was down 0.14 percent, E Sun Financial rallied 1.15 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company jumped 1.93 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation eased 0.19 percent, Hon Hai Precision soared 3.03 percent, Largan Precision perked 0.20 percent, Catcher Technology slid 0.23 percent, MediaTek surged 3.08 percent, Delta Electronics climbed 0.99 percent, Novatek Microelectronics skyrocketed 6.14 percent, Formosa Plastics fell 0.29 percent, Nan Ya Plastics advanced 0.92 percent, China Steel shed 0.43 percent and Asia Cement and Taiwan Cement were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is positive as the major averages opened solidly higher on Monday and remained in the green throughout the trading day.

The Dow advanced 75.66 points or 0.20 percent to finish at 38,790.43, while the NASDAQ jumped 130.27 points or 0.82 percent to close at 16,103.45 and the S&P 500 gained 32.33 points or 0.63 percent to end at 5,149.42.

Technology stocks led the rally on Wall Street, with the tech-heavy NASDAQ showing a strong move to the upside on gains from the likes of Alphabet (GOOGL) and Nvidia (NVDA).

Meanwhile, traders continued to look ahead to the Federal Reserve's two-day monetary policy meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday. The Fed is widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged after recent inflation readings have reduced optimism about a rate cut in June.

In U.S. economic news, the National Association of Home Builders reported an unexpected improvement in U.S. homebuilder confidence in March.

Oil prices moved higher Monday amid concerns about supply due to geopolitical risks following continued drone attacks by Ukraine on Russian oil refineries, as well as data showing a drop in crude exports from Iraq and Saudi Arabia. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for April jumped $1.68 or 2.1 percent at $82.72 a barrel.