Taiwan Stock Market May Extend Monday's Losses

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market on Monday ended the two-day winning streak in which it had spiked nearly 480 points or 3.4 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now rests just above the 14,340-point plateau and it may take further damage on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft ahead of quarterly earnings and on renewed pandemic concerns. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian bourses figure to follow that lead.

The TSE finished modestly lower on Monday following losses from the financial shares and plastic stocks, while the technology companies were mixed.

For the day, the index dropped 124.00 points or 0.86 percent to finish at 14,340.53 after trading between 14,313.94 and 14,525.03.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial collected 0.56 percent, while Mega Financial surrendered 2.14 percent, CTBC Financial sank 0.84 percent, Fubon Financial declined 1.19 percent, First Financial lost 0.78 percent, E Sun Financial plummeted 4.42 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company skidded 1.07 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation tanked 2.77 percent, Hon Hai Precision dropped 0.98 percent, Largan Precision added 0.53 percent, Catcher Technology rose 0.31 percent, MediaTek tumbled 2.15 percent, Delta Electronics advanced 0.88 percent, Formosa Plastics eased 0.12 percent, Nan Ya Plastics slumped 2.15 percent, Asia Cement gained 0.46 percent and Taiwan Cement improved 0.74 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened firmly lower on Monday and largely remained that way throughout the session.

The Dow sank 164.31 points or 0.52 percent to finish at 31.173.84, while the NASDAQ plummeted 262.71 points or 2.26 percent to finish at 11,372.60 and the S&P 500 dropped 44.95 points or 1.15 percent to end at 3,854.43.

Renewed Covid concerns contributed to the weakness on Wall Street as Shanghai reported its first case of the highly infectious BA.5 omicron sub-variant, raising fears of more lockdowns.

Macau also closed all its casinos for the first time in over two years on Monday after a coronavirus outbreak in the world's biggest gambling hub.

Light trading activity may have exaggerated the downward move, as some traders stuck to the sidelines amid a lack of major U.S. economic data and corporate earnings.

Crude oil prices slipped Monday on concerns about the outlook for energy demand amid a surge in coronavirus cases in China, while the dollar's jump amid expectations of sharp interest rate hikes also weighed on prices. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for August ended lower by $0.70 or 0.7 percent at $104.90 a barrel.