Lower Open Predicted For Taiwan Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market rebounded on Friday, one day after ending the five-day winning streak in which it had rallied more than 910 points or 3.9 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just above the 24,330-point plateau although it may head south again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is murky amid a cloudy outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets were mixed and little changed and the Asian bourses figure to follow suit.

The TSE finished modestly higher on Friday following gains from the plastics and mixed performances from the financial shares and technology stocks.

For the day, the index climbed 96.38 points or 0.40 percent to finish at 24,334.48 after trading between 24,164.43 and 24,385.56.

Among the actives, Mega Financial skidded 1.17 percent, while CTBC Financial collected 0.32 percent, First Financial slumped 1.02 percent, Fubon Financial perked 0.16 percent, E Sun Financial retreated 1.45 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company added 0.43 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation advanced 0.98 percent, Hon Hai Precision soared 3.76 percent, Largan Precision dropped 1.04 percent, Catcher Technology fell 0.25 percent, MediaTek declined 1.44 percent, Delta Electronics rallied 2.39 percent, Novatek Microelectronics declined 1.15 percent, Formosa Plastics climbed 1.15 percent, Nan Ya Plastics accelerated 2.87 percent, Asia Cement lost 1.01 percent and Cathay Financial was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened mixed on Friday and stayed that way throughout the session, ending on opposite sides of the unchanged line.

The Dow added 34.82 points or 0.08 percent to finish at 44,946.12, while the NASDAQ sank 87.72 points or 0.40 percent to close at 21,622.98 and the S&P 500 fell 18.74 points or 0.29 percent to end at 6,449.80. For the week, the NASDAQ added 0.8 percent, the S&P gained 0.9 percent and the Dow jumped 1.7 percent.

The weakness in the broader markets followed the release of mixed batch of U.S. economic data, which has led to some uncertainty about the outlook for the economy and interest rates.

While the Commerce Department said retail sales increased in line with estimates in July, the University of Michigan noted an unexpected deterioration in consumer sentiment in August.

On the inflation front, year-ahead inflation expectations jumped to 4.9 percent in August from 4.5 in July, while the Labor Department said import prices increased more than expected last month and the Federal Reserve saw a slight pullback by industrial production in July.

Crude oil traded lower on Friday ahead of the meeting between the presidents of the U.S. and Russia, which ultimately accomplished nothing. West Texas Intermediate crude for September delivery was down $1.20 or 1.88 percent at $62.76 per barrel.