Tech Shares May Boost Taiwan Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market headed south again on Thursday, one day after ending the two-day slide in which it had stumbled more than 600 points or 3 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just beneath the 19,480-point plateau and it's expected to move to the upside again on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat, with oil and technology stocks expected to lead the way higher. The European and U.S. markets finished solidly higher and the Asian bourses are also expected to open in the green.

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

For the day, the index stumbled 160.33 points or 0.82 percent to finish at 19,478.81 after trading between 19,433.37 and 19,752.59.

Among the actives, Mega Financial shed 0.66 percent, while First Financial dipped 0.20 percent, Fubon Financial retreated 1.26 percent, E Sun Financial declined 1.44 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company skidded 1.03 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation plunged 3.77 percent, Hon Hai Precision tumbled 1.80 percent, Largan Precision surrendered 1.83 percent, Catcher Technology rallied 2.35 percent, MediaTek stumbled 2.92 percent, Delta Electronics dropped 0.91 percent, Novatek Microelectronics slumped 1.33 percent, Formosa Plastics plummeted 4.49 percent, Nan Ya Plastics tanked 2.88 percent and Asia Cement, Cathay Financial and CTBC Financial were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is broadly positive as the major averages opened mixed but quickly moved sharply higher, finishing near daily highs.

The Dow spiked 486.83 points or 1.23 percent to finish at 40,093.40, while the NASDAQ rallied 457.99 points or 2.74 percent to close at 17,166.04 and the S&P 500 jumped 108.91 points or 2.03 percent to end at 5,484.77.

Semiconductor stocks turned in some of the best performances on the day, resulting in a 5.6 percent spike by Philadelphia Semiconductor Index. Texas Instruments (TXN) and Lam Research (LRCX) fueled the rally on better than expected quarterly earnings.

Later in the day, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the U.S. may reach "an agreement on understanding" on trade with South Korea "as soon as next week."

On the economic front, the Labor Department said first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits edged modestly higher last week. Also, the Commerce Department said new orders for U.S. manufactured durable goods surged much more than expected in March

Crude oil showed a modest move back to the upside on Thursday following the steep drop in the previous session. West Texas Intermediate crude for June delivery rose $0.16 or 0.3 percent to $62.43 a barrel after plunging $1.40 or 2.2 percent to $62.27 a barrel a day earlier.