Tech Shares May Weigh On Taiwan Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market has climbed higher in consecutive trading days, advancing more than 200 points or 1 percent in that span. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just beneath the 19,930-point plateau although it may hand back those gains on Thursday.

The global forecast is mixed and flat amid a lack of catalysts, with expected weakness from the technology stocks likely offset by gains from the oil companies. The European and U.S. markets were mixed and little changed and the Asian bourses figure to follow that lead.

The TSE finished barely higher on Wednesday as gains from the financial and technology shares were offset by weakness from the plastic and cement companies.

For the day, the index rose 13.96 points or 0.07 percent to finish at 19,928.51 after trading between 19,866.73 and 20,112.81.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial collected 0.65 percent, while Mega Financial climbed 1.13 percent, CTBC Financial surged 4.60 percent, First Financial improved 0.74 percent, Fubon Financial perked 0.29 percent, E Sun Financial was up 0.19 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company strengthened 1.17 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation advanced 0.95 percent, Hon Hai Precision rallied 1.26 percent, Largan Precision sank 0.79 percent, Catcher Technology increased 1.21 percent, Delta Electronics added 0.64 percent, Novatek Microelectronics tumbled 1.68 percent, Formosa Plastics slumped 1.30 percent, Nan Ya Plastics tanked 1.94 percent, Asia Cement lost 0.62 percent, Taiwan Cement dropped 0.94 percent, China Steel skidded 0.83 percent and MediaTek was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is weak as the major averages opened mixed on Wednesday and finished the same way, little changed.

The Dow added 37.83 points or 0.10 percent to finish at 39,043.32, while the NASDAQ sank 87.87 points or 0.54 percent to close at 16,177.77 and the S&P 500 fell 9.96 points or 0.19 percent to end at 5.165.31.

The pullback by the Nasdaq partly reflected weakness in the tech sector, with AI darling Nvidia (NVDA) slumping by 1.1 percent.

Overall trading activity remained subdued ahead of several key reports in the coming days, including producer prices, jobless claims, industrial production and retail sales.

Oil prices rose sharply on Wednesday after data showed an unexpected drop in U.S. crude inventories last week, while supply disruptions in Russia also contributed to the rise in oil prices. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for April rose $2.16 or 2.8 percent at $79.72 a barrel.