Taiwan Stock Market May See Continued Consolidation

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market has moved lower in two of three trading days since the end of the four-day winning streak in which it had spiked more than 760 points or 3.4 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now rests just above the 23,380-point plateau and it may take further damage on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft thanks to concerns over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were mostly lower and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The TSE finished modestly lower on Wednesday as losses from the losses from the technology stocks were mitigated by support from the plastics and financials.

For the day, the index dropped 94.30 points or 0.40 percent to finish at the daily low of 23,289.75 after peaking at 23,528.61.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial perked 0.17 percent, while Mega Financial collected 0.52 percent, CTBC Financial added 0.50 percent, First Financial gained 0.54 percent, Fubon Financial shed 0.43 percent, E Sun Financial improved 0.87 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company dropped 0.90 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation and Largan Precision both sank 0.74 percent, Hon Hai Precision skidded 1.12 percent, Catcher Technology and Asia Cement both rose 0.25 percent, MediaTek retreated 1.66 percent, Delta Electronics slipped 0.25 percent, Novatek Microelectronics rallied 1.49 percent, Formosa Plastics surged 4.85 percent and Nan Ya Plastics soared 2.65 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is uninspired as the major averages opened lower and largely stayed that way, although the NASDAQ peeked up into the green by the close.

The Dow dropped 225.09 points or 0.50 percent to finish at 44,368.56, while the NASDAQ perked 6.10 points or 0.03 percent to close at 19,649.95 and the S&P 500 lost 16.53 points or 0.27 percent to end at 6,051.97.

The early sell-off on Wall Street came following the release of a closely watched Labor Department report showing consumer prices in the U.S. increased by more than expected in January.

The hotter than expected inflation data increased speculation the Federal Reserve will leave interest rates on hold for a prolonged period.

Oil prices fell sharply on Wednesday, weighed down by data showing a larger than expected increase in U.S. crude inventories last week. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures settled lower by $1.95 or about 2.66 percent at $71.37 a barrel, falling after three successive days of gains.