Steady Start Predicted For Taiwan Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market on Thursday halted the four-day losing streak in which it had plunged more than 570 points or 4 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now rests just above the 14,230-point plateau and it's called higher again on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is broadly positive on bargain hunting and expectations for solid earnings news. The European and U.S. markets were sharply higher and the Asian bourses figure to follow suit.

The JCI finished modestly higher on Wednesday following gains from the plastic companies and mixed performances from the financials and resource stocks.

For the day, the index gained 64.37 points or 0.45 percent to finish at 14,234.40 after trading between 14,197.86 and 14,291.98.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial fell 0.37 percent, while Mega Financial lost 0.49 percent, CTBC Financial sank 0.91 percent, E Sun Financial collected 0.42 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company added 0.33 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation gained 0.36 percent, Largan Precision skidded 1.13 percent, Catcher Technology dropped 0.89 percent, MediaTek strengthened 1.24 percent, Delta Electronics perked 0.18 percent, Novatek Microelectronics shed 067 percent, Formosa Plastics perked 0.12 percent, Nan Ya Plastics was up 0.28 percent, Asia Cement slumped 0.86 percent, Taiwan Cement climbed 1.04 percent and Hon Hai Precision, Fubon Financial and First Financial were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is upbeat as the major averages opened higher on Wednesday and remained solidly in the green throughout the session.

The Dow surged 526.74 points or 1.60 percent to finish at 33,376.48, while the NASDAQ spiked 162.26 points or 1.54 percent to end at 10,709.37 and the S&P 500 jumped 56.82 points or 1.49 percent to close at 3,878.44.

The rally on Wall Street came as stocks continued to benefit from bargain hunting and upbeat earnings news from companies like Nike (NKE) and FedEx (FDX).

In economic news, the Conference Board reported a significant improvement in U.S. consumer confidence in December. But the National Association of Realtors noted a continued slump in U.S. existing home sales in November.

Crude oil prices rose sharply on Wednesday after data showed a larger than expected drop in U.S. crude inventories last week. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for February ended higher by $2.06 at $78.29 a barrel.

Closer to home, Taiwan will see unemployment data for November later today; in October, the jobless rate was 3.64 percent.