Taiwan Stock Market May Spin Its Wheels On Tuesday

(RTTNews) - Ahead of Monday's Labor Day holiday, the Taiwan stock market had moved higher in three straight sessions, advancing more than 200 points or 1.4 percent along the way. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now rests just beneath the 15,580-point plateau although it may run out of steam on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests little movement ahead of the FOMC's rate decision on Wednesday. The European markets were slightly higher and the U.S. bourses were slightly lower and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

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

For the day, the index climbed 167.68 points or 1.09 percent to finish at 15,579.18 after trading between 15,477.34 and 15,580.63.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial was up 0.47 percent, while Mega Financial collected 0.59 percent, CTBC Financial improved 0.89 percent, First Financial perked 0.37 percent, Fubon Financial soared 2.25 percent, E Sun Financial increased 0.60 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company jumped 1.72 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation added 0.51 percent, Hon Hai Precision advanced 0.97 percent, Largan Precision sank 0.74 percent, Catcher Technology gained 0.56 percent, MediaTek rose 0.45 percent, Delta Electronics strengthened 1.52 percent, Novatek Microelectronics spiked 1.95 percent, Formosa Plastics was up 0.21 percent, Nan Ya Plastics rose 0.39 percent, Asia Cement added 0.34 percent, Taiwan Cement gathered 0.13 percent and China Steel improved 0.69 percent.

The lead from Wall Street ends up negative after the major averages spent most of Monday in positive territory before a late slide saw them finish slightly in the red.

The Dow shed 46.46 points or 0.14 percent to finish at 34,051.70, while the NASDAQ lost 13.99 points or 0.11 percent to close at 12,212.60 and the S&P 500 eased 1.61 points or 0.04 percent to end at 4,167.87.

The choppy trading on Wall Street came as traders seemed reluctant to make significant moves ahead of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement on Wednesday.

While the Fed is widely expected to raise interest rates by another 25 basis points, traders will pay close attention to the accompanying statement for clues about the outlook for rates.

In economic news, the Institute for Supply Management said manufacturing activity contracted for the sixth straight month in April. Also, the Commerce Department reported an unexpected increase in U.S construction spending in March.

Crude oil prices tumbled on Monday, weighed down by concerns about economic growth and worries about the outlook for energy demand. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for June sank $1.12 or 1.5 percent at $75.66 a barrel.