Lower Open Anticipated For Taiwan Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market on Wednesday ended the three-day winning streak in which hit had improved almost 160 points or 1 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now rests just beneath the 16,740-point plateau and it's likely to open in the red again on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft on growth and inflation concerns. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian bourses are expected to open in similar fashion.

The TSE finished modestly lower on Wednesday following losses among the financial shares, technology stocks and plastic and cement companies.

For the day, the index dropped 53.45 points or 0.32 percent to finish at 16,738.16 after trading between 16,732.69 and 16,841.19.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial declined 1.40 percent, while Mega Financial retreated 1.25 percent, CTBC Financial stumbled 1.46 percent, First Financial shed 0.75 percent, Fubon Financial lost 0.65 percent, E Sun Financial fell 0.61 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company fell 0.36 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation rose 0.32 percent, Hon Hai Precision dropped 0.93 percent, Largan Precision tanked 2.08 percent, Catcher Technology climbed 1.39 percent, MediaTek sank 0.84 percent, Delta Electronics skidded 1.00 percent, Novatek Microelectronics improved 0.71 percent, Formosa Plastics weakened 0.98 percent, Nan Ya Plastics surrendered 1.18 percent, Asia Cement slumped 0.99 percent, Taiwan Cement tumbled 1.71 percent and China Steel was down 1.11 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened lower and remained under water throughout the trading day.

The Dow dropped 198.78 points or 0.57 percent to finish at 34,443.19, while the NASDAQ sank 148.48 points or 1.06 percent to end at 13,872.47 and the S&P 500 lost 31.35 points or 0.70 percent to close at 4,465.48.

The continued weakness on Wall Street reflected ongoing concerns about the outlook for the global economy and inflation concerns.

Stocks saw further downside following a report from the Institute for Supply Management showing an unexpected acceleration in the pace of U.S. service sector growth in August - sending treasury yields higher.

In other U.S. economic news, the Commerce Department released a report showing the U.S. trade deficit widened in the month of July.

Crude oil prices extended recent gains and moved higher on Wednesday, lifting the futures contract to a fresh nine-month closing high - fueled by the decision by Russia and Saudi Arabia to extend production cuts. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for October ended higher by $0.85 or 1 percent at $87.54 a barrel.