Taiwan Stock Market May Run Out Of Steam On Monday

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market has moved higher in five straight sessions, improving almost 540 points or 3.3 percent along the way. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just above the 17,200-point plateau although its overdue for consolidation on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets remains upbeat on optimism over the outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets were up and the Asian bourses are tipped to open in similar fashion.

The TSE finished modestly higher on Friday as gains from the financials and technology stocks were capped by weakness from the plastic sector.

For the day, the index improved 37.77 points or 0.22 percent to finish at 17,208.95 after trading between 17,147.56 and 17,253.47.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial added 0.33 percent, while First Financial rose 0.18 percent, Fubon Financial collected 0.48 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company shed 0.51 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation jumped 1.95 percent, Hon Hai Precision rallied 1.49 percent, Largan Precision improved 0.71 percent, Catcher Technology climbed 1.06 percent, MediaTek strengthened 1.23 percent, Novatek Microelectronics spiked 2.06 percent, Formosa Plastics lost 0.49 percent, Nan Ya Plastics fell 0.29 percent, Asia Cement eased 0.12 percent, Taiwan Cement gained 0.45 percent and China Steel, Delta Electronics, Mega Financial, CTBC Financial and E Sun Financial were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is cautiously optimistic as the major averages opened lower on Friday but broke into the green by midday and finished with mild gains.

The Dow rose 1.78 points or 0.01 percent to finish at 34,947.28, while the NASDAQ added 11.78 points or 0.08 percent to close at 14,125.48 and the S&P 500 gained 5.78 points or 0.13 percent to end at 4,514.02.

For the week, the NASDAQ surged 2.4 percent, the S&P jumped 2.2 percent and the Row rallied 1.9 percent.

Optimism about the outlook for interest rates has contributed to the recent advance, as the latest data has shown signs of easing inflation.

In economic news, the Commerce Department released a report showing an unexpected increase in new residential construction and building permits in October.

Crude oil futures spiked on Friday, but the most active futures contract still posted its fourth straight weekly loss amid concerns about the outlook for near term energy demand. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for December jumped $2.99 or 4.1 percent at $75.89 a barrel. WTI crude futures shed 4 percent in the week.

Closer to home, Taiwan will provide October numbers for export orders and Q3 data for current account later today. In September, export orders slumped 15.6 percent on year, while the current account surplus in Q2 was $22.24 billion.