Soft Start Anticipated For Taiwan Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market has moved lower in four straight sessions, dropping almost 1,175 points or 5 percent along the way. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just beneath the 22,500-point plateau and it's expected to at least open in the red on Tuesday. The global forecast for the Asian markets is murky, with support from the oil companies likely offset by weakness from the technology shares. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were mostly higher and the Asian markets figure to split the difference. The TSE finished sharply lower on Monday following heavy losses among the technology shares, support from the plastics and a mixed picture from the financial sector. For the day, the index plummeted 523.53 points or 2.28 percent to finish at 22,488.33 after trading between 22,458.22 and 23,070.32. Among the actives, Cathay Financial dipped 0.17 percent, while First Financial shed 0.55 percent, Fubon Financial perked 0.17 percent, E Sun Financial skidded 1.10 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company stumbled 2.27 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation dropped 0.97 percent, Hon Hai Precision plummeted 5.51 percent, Largan Precision surrendered 3.45 percent, Catcher Technology fell 0.25 percent, MediaTek plunged 5.12 percent, Delta Electronics tumbled 4.76 percent, Novatek Microelectronics sank 0.82 percent, Formosa Plastics rallied 2.86 percent, Nan Ya Plastics jumped 1.41 percent, Asia Cement gained 0.64 percent and Mega Financial and CTBC Financial were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is mixed to higher as the major averages opened on opposite sides of the unchanged line on Monday and finished in the same manner.

The Dow rallied 359.95 points or 0.86 percent to finish at 42,298.40, while the NASDAQ slumped 74.01 points or 0.39 percent to close at 19,087.62 and the S&P 500 rose 8.27 points or 0.14 percent to end at 5,835.31.

Weakness in the tech sector weighed on Wall Street early in the session, as AI darling and market leader Nvidia (NVDA) plunged by as much as 4.7 percent.

Ongoing concerns about the outlook for interest rates also generated negative sentiment following last Friday's stronger-than-expected monthly jobs report.

Selling pressure waned over the course of the trading session, however, leading some traders to pick up stocks at reduced levels as the S&P 500 rebounded from its lowest intraday level in over two months.

Oil prices rose sharply to a five-month high on Monday amid potential supply risks after the U.S. imposed sweeping sanctions on Russia's oil exports, while a stronger dollar also weighed. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for February closed up $2.25 or nearly 3 percent at $78.82 a barrel.