Taiwan Bourse May Hand Back Thursday's Gains

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market on Thursday ended the two-day slide in which it had dropped more than 275 points or 1.6 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just above the 16,450-point plateau although it may head south again on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is flat to lower ahead of key U.S. employment data later in the day. The European markets were mixed and little changed and the U.S. bourses were slightly lower and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

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

For the day, the index climbed 180.14 points or 1.11 percent to finish at 16,453.52 after trading between 16,313.89 and 16,477.61.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial climbed 1.15 percent, while Mega Financial surged 1,76 percent, CTBC Financial increased 1.69 percent, First Financial gained 0.77 percent, Fubon Financial gathered 1.34 percent, E Sun Financial perked 0.84 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company rallied 1.54 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation soared 2.38 percent, Hon Hai Precision added 0.49 percent, Largan Precision jumped 1.92 percent, Catcher Technology advanced 0.82 percent, MediaTek improved 0.77 percent, Delta Electronics strengthened 1.50 percent, Novatek Microelectronics spiked 2.09 percent, Formosa Plastics rose 0.38 percent, Nan Ya Plastics was up 0.78 percent, Asia Cement collected 0.64 percent, Taiwan Cement shed 0.46 percent and China Steel accelerated 1.24 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened lower on Thursday, tumbled and then rebounded but still ended slightly under water.

The Dow dipped 9.98 points or 0.03 percent to finish at 33,119.57, while the NASDAQ fell 16.18 points or 0.12 percent to close at 13,219.83 and the S&P 500 eased 5.56 points or 0.13 percent to end at 4,258.19.

The early weakness on Wall Street came as traders remained worried about the outlook for interest rates ahead of the release of closely watched employment data later today.

Selling pressure waned over the course of the session, however, with a continue pullback by treasuries inspiring some traders to pick up stocks at reduced levels.

Ahead of the monthly jobs report, the Labor Department reported a slight uptick in first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits last week.

Crude oil prices fell sharply on Thursday amid uncertainty about the outlook for demand and due to disappointment over OPEC's decision to not increase the size of production cuts. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for November sank $1.91 or 2.3 percent at $82.31 a barrel.