Steady Start Set For Taiwan Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market has tracked higher in consecutive trading days, accelerating almost 750 points or 3.8 percent along the way. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just beneath the 20,500-point plateau and it may open higher again on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is flat to slightly higher ahead of Wednesday's FOMC policy announcement. The European markets were soft and the U.S. bourses were slightly higher and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The TSE finished sharply higher on Monday with gains across the board, especially among the financials, technology stocks, plastics and cement companies.

For the day, the index rallied 375.01 points or 1.86 percent to finish at the daily high of 20,495.52 after moving as low as 20,235.93.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial soared 3.89 percent, while Mega Financial accelerated 2.56 percent, CTBC Financial skyrocketed 9.96 percent, First Financial collected 2.04 percent, Fubon Financial increased 2.66 percent, E Sun Financial advanced 2.03 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company rallied 1.66 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation strengthened 1.20 percent, Hon Hai Precision spiked 2.26 percent, Largan Precision added 0.69 percent, Catcher Technology improved 1.17 percent, MediaTek climbed 1.00 percent, Delta Electronics jumped 1.90 percent, Novatek Microelectronics surged 3.65 percent, Formosa Plastics was up 2.36 percent, Nan Ya Plastics gathered 3.60 percent, Asia Cement gained 1.99 percent, Taiwan Cement gathered 1.73 percent and China Steel perked 1.83 percent.

The lead from Wall Street suggests mild upside as the major averages opened higher on Monday and stayed mostly in the green, ending slightly higher.

The Dow jumped 146.43 points or 0.38 percent to finish at 38,386.09, while the NASDAQ advanced 55.18 points or 0.35 percent to close at 15,983.08 and the S&P 500 added 16.21 points or 0.32 percent to end at 5,116.17.

The modestly higher close on Wall Street came as stocks continue to benefit from the upward momentum seen last week, which came amid a positive reaction to upbeat tech earnings.

Overall trading activity was somewhat subdued, however, as traders look ahead to the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement on Wednesday.

The Fed is widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged, but the accompanying statement and Fed Chair Jerome Powell's post-meeting press conference may shed additional light on the outlook for rates.

Oil futures settled lower on Monday amid worries about growth and outlook for oil demand and the rising possibility of the Federal Reserve delaying interest rate cuts. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for June ended down by $1.22 or 1.45 percent at $82.63 a barrel.

Closer to home, Taiwan will release preliminary Q1 data for gross domestic product later today; in the three months prior, GDP was up 4.93 percent.