Taiwan Stock Market May See Profit Taking On Friday

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market returned to the upside from the long Lunar New Year break, extending its winning streak to four sessions and more than 750 points or 4.2 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just beneath the 18,650-point plateau although investors may lock in gains on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is positive as soft U.S. economic data reinforced the case for an interest rate cut in June. The European and U.S. markets were up and the Asian bourses are expected to open in similar fashion.

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

For the day, the index surged 548.50 points or 3.03 percent to finish at 18,644.57 after trading between 18,550.86 and 18,725.47.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial rose 0.34 percent, while Mega Financial collected 0.53 percent, CTBC Financial improved 0.89 percent, First Financial eased 0.19 percent, Fubon Financial advanced 0.93 percent, E Sun Financial gained 0.61 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company skyrocketed 7.89 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation jumped 2.29 percent, Hon Hai Precision shed 0.49 percent, Largan Precision strengthened 2.12 percent, Catcher Technology climbed 1.29 percent, MediaTek spiked 3.74 percent, Delta Electronics skidded 1.04 percent, Nan Ya Plastics gathered 0.33 percent, Asia Cement slumped 0.63 percent, Taiwan Cement lost 0.47 percent, China Steel declined 1.01 percent and CK Hutchison, Novatek Microelectronics and Formosa Plastics were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is upbeat as the major averages opened mixed on Thursday but climbed steadily throughout the day so that they all ended in the green.

The Dow jumped 348.85 points or 0.91 percent to finish at 38,773.12, while the NASDAQ added 47.03 points or 0.30 percent to close at 15,906.17 and the S&P 500 rose 29.11 points or 0.58 percent to end at 5,029.73.

The higher close on Wall Street came after a Commerce Department report showing a much bigger than expected decrease in U.S. retail sales in January led to renewed optimism about the outlook for interest rates.

The Federal Reserve also released a report showing industrial production in the U.S. unexpectedly edged slightly lower in January.

Crude oil futures ended higher on Thursday as the dollar weakened after the weak retail sales data raised hopes of a rate cut by the Federal Reserve in June. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for March rallied $1.39 or 1.8 percent at $78.03 a barrel.