Mild Upside Seen For Taiwan Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market has alternated between positive and negative finishes through the last four trading days since the end of the two-day winning streak in which it had gained almost 400 points or 1.8 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just above the 23,460-point plateau and it's looking at a steady start on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets offers little guidance, with support from oil and technology stocks likely to be offset by weakness from the property and transportation companies. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were mixed and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

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

For the day, the index rallied 260.20 points or 1.12 percent to finish at the daily high of 23,461.72 after trading as low as 23,264.64.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial dipped 0.17 percent, while Mega Financial collected 0.47 percent, Fubon Financial improved 0.73 percent, E Sun Financial added 063 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company jumped 1.76 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation shed 0.58 percent, Largan Precision climbed 1.08 percent, Catcher Technology gained 0.47 percent, MediaTek strengthened 1.47 percent, Delta Electronics advanced 0.95 percent, Novatek Microelectronics stumbled 1.65 percent, Formosa Plastics skyrocketed 9.92 percent, Nan Ya Plastics surged 7.95 percent, Asia Cement rallied 1.00 percent and CTBC Financial, First Financial and Hon Hai Precision were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened slightly higher on Wednesday and hugged the line until the FOMC statement, ending mixed and little changed.

The Dow dropped 171.71 points or 0.38 percent to finish at 44,461.28, while the NASDAQ rose 31.38 points or 0.15 percent to close at 21,129.67 and the S&P 500 fell 7.96 points or 0.12 percent to end at 6,362.90.

The mixed closed by the major averages came after the Federal Reserve announced its widely expected decision to leave interest rates unchanged in a divided vote.

The decision to leave rates unchanged was not unanimous as Fed Governors Michelle Bowman and Christopher Waller preferred to lower rates by a quarter percentage point.

In economic news, payroll processor ADP said private sector employment in the U.S. increased more than expected in July. Also, the Commerce Department said the U.S. economy rebounded by more than expected in the second quarter of 2025.

Crude oil inched higher on Wednesday on hopes the U.S. can avoid a trade war, while the grace period was cut for Russia to avoid sanctions on its energy trades from 50 to 10 days. West Texas Intermediate crude for September delivery rose $0.82 or 1.18 percent at $70.02 per barrel.

Closer to home, Taiwan will see preliminary Q2 numbers for gross domestic product later today; in Q1, GDP expanded 5.48 percent on year.