Rally May Stall For Taiwan Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market has tracked higher in two straight sessions, gathering more than 55 points or 0.4 percent along the way. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just shy of the 14,330-point plateau although it's likely to open under pressure on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is murky on concerns over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were mixed and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The TSE finished modestly higher on Tuesday as the financial shares and technology stocks ended mostly in positive territory.

For the day, the index added 43.30 points or 0.30 percent to finish at 14,328.43 after trading between 14,310.19 and 14,410.24.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial was up 0.37 percent, while Mega Financial dipped 0.16 percent, CTBC Financial gathered 0.68 percent, Fubon Financial collected 0.64 percent, First Financial increased 0.38 percent, E Sun Financial advanced 0.62 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company perked 0.11 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation eased 0.12 percent, Hon Hai Precision shed 0.50 percent, Largan Precision rallied 2.12 percent, Catcher Technology fell 0.29 percent, MediaTek improved 0 .77 percent, Delta Electronics added 0.71 percent, Novateck Microelectronics surged 4.08 percent, China Steel dropped 0.98 percent, Formosa Plastics gathered 0.35 percent, Nan Ya Plastics gained 0.42 percent, Asia Cement perked 0.12 percent and Taiwan Cement lost 0.29 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is uninspired as the major averages opened lower on Tuesday, with only the Dow managing to break barely into positive territory.

The Dow rose 37.63 points or 0.11 percent to finish at 33,241.56, while the NASDAQ tumbled 144.64 points or 1.38 percent to end at 10,353.23 and the S&P 500 sank 15.57 points or 0.40 percent to close at 3,829.25.

The weakness on Wall Street partly reflected lingering concerns about the economic outlook following recent indications the Federal Reserve plans to continuing raising interest rates.

The markets got a lift when treasuries moved sharply lower, extending the downward trend seen over the past several sessions.

Bond prices came under pressure in early trading and saw further downside as the day progressed. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, jumped 10.9 basis points to 3.860 percent.

Crude oil prices pared gains and settled roughly flat on Tuesday after refineries in the Gulf Coast restarted after a temporary closure. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for February settled flat at $79.53 a barrel.