Taiwan Stock Market May Spin Its Wheels On Wednesday

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market has tracked higher in back-to-back sessions, collecting more than 225 points or 1.5 percent along the way. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just above the 17,140-point plateau although it may run out of steam on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests little movement amidst a lack of catalysts and ahead of key U.S. employment data later this week. The European markets were slightly lower and the U.S. bourses were closed for the Independence Day holiday and the Asian markets figure to see a steady start.

The TSE finished modestly higher on Tuesday as gains from the technology stocks were offset by weakness from the financial and plastic sectors.

For the day, the index gained 56.57 points or 0.33 percent to finish at 17,140.77 after trading between 17,042.60 and 17,154.10.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial sank 0.58 percent, while Mega Financial collected 0.52 percent, CTBC Financial dropped 1.00 percent, First Financial added 0.36 percent, Fubon Financial shed 0.65 percent, E Sun Financial lost 0.57 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company climbed 1.04 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation rallied 1.14 percent, Hon Hai Precision rose 0.27 percent, Largan Precision surged 4.92 percent, Catcher Technology increased 1.15 percent, MediaTek improved 1.30 percent, Delta Electronics jumped 1.24 percent, Novatek Microelectronics soared 3.65 percent, Formosa Plastics retreated 1.05 percent, Nan Ya Plastics tumbled 1.66 percent, Taiwan Cement slid 0.52 percent, China Steel dropped 0.84 percent and Asia Cement was unchanged.

There is no lead from Wall Street, although the European markets saw mild consolidation on disappointing economic data, while Canadian shares ticked slightly higher on gains from energy companies.

Traders will look to the minutes of the latest U.S. Federal Reserve meeting later today, along with the Labor Department's closely watched monthly jobs report on Friday.

Recent data has pointed to a resilient U.S. economy, while slowing inflation has added to optimism about the outlook for interest rates. The Fed is still widely expected to raise interest rates by a quarter point later this month, but traders are hopeful that will be end of the rate-hiking cycle.