Tech Shares May Weigh On Taiwan Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market on Tuesday snapped the two-day slide in which it had dropped almost 230 points or 1.7 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now rests just above the 14,700-point plateau although it's likely to see renewed selling pressure on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed with little change ahead of key economic events that are likely to affect the outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets were mixed and flat and the Asian bourses figure to follow suit.

The TSE finished sharply higher on Tuesday following gains from the financial shares, technology stocks and cement companies.

For the day, the index jumped 152.77 points or 1.05 percent to finish at 14,709.64 after trading between 14,449.05 and 14,716.58.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial surged 3.45 percent, while Mega Financial accelerated 1.78 percent, CTBC Financial spiked 2.93 percent, Fubon Financial soared 2.94 percent, First Financial climbed 1.35 percent, E Sun Financial rallied 1.66 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company strengthened 1.35 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation and Catcher Technology both added 0.56 percent, Largan Precision dipped 0.22 percent, MediaTek improved 1.42 percent, Delta Electronics jumped 1.71 percent, Novatek Microelectronics gained 0.51 percent, China Steel perked 2.87 percent, Formosa Plastics eased 0.22 percent, Nan Ya Plastics advanced 0.92 percent, Asia Cement gathered 1.48 percent, Taiwan Cement increased 1.67 percent and Hon Hai Precision was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street suggests a mild negative bias as the major averages opened higher, tumbled mid-session but then bounced back to finish mixed and little changed.

The Dow added 3.07 points or 0.01 percent to finish at 33,852.53, while the NASDAQ lost 65.72 points or 0.59 percent to end at 10,983.78 and the S&P 500 dipped 6.31 points or 0.16 percent to close at 3,957.63.

The choppy trading on Wall Street came amid lingering uncertainty about the situation in China following widespread protests over the country's Covid restrictions.

Traders may also have been reluctant to make significant moves ahead of remarks from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell later today, which may offer additional clues about the outlook for interest rates. Jobless data follows on Friday.

In economic news, the Conference Board released a report showing a modest decrease in U.S. consumer confidence in November.

Crude oil futures settled higher Tuesday, extending gains from the previous session on hopes that OPEC may trim production to support prices later this week. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for January ended higher by $$0.96 or 1.2 percent at $78.20 a barrel.