Tech Shares Likely To Weigh On Taiwan Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market has tracked lower in two straight sessions, sinking more than 260 points or 1.9 percent along the way. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now rests just beneath the 14,285-point plateau and it's tipped to open under pressure again on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is negative on recession fears and concern over the outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian markets figure to follow that lead.

The TSE finished modestly lower on Thursday following losses from the financial shares, technology stocks and plastics companies.

For the day, the index slumped 139.89 points or 0.97 percent to finish at 14,284.63 after trading between 14,151.80 and 14,325.67.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial weakened 2.12 percent, while Mega Financial declined 1.75 percent, CTBC Financial stumbled 2.04 percent, Fubon Financial collected 1.10 percent, First Financial dropped 0.93 percent, E Sun Financial slumped 1.83 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company retreated 1.38 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation tumbled 2.15 percent, Largan Precision added 0.53 percent, Catcher Technology shed 0.58 percent, MediaTek tanked 2.31 percent, Delta Electronics climbed 1.12 percent, Novatek Microelectronics surrendered 1.64 percent, Formosa Plastics dipped 0.35 percent, Nan Ya Plastics sank 1.34 percent, Taiwan Cement lost 1.44 percent and Hon Hai Precision and Asia Cement were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street continues to be weak as the major averages opened lower on Thursday and remained in the red throughout the session.

The Dow shed 107.10 points or 0.35 percent to finish at 30,076.68, while the NASDAQ tumbled 153.39 points or 1.37 percent to end at 11,066.81 and the S&P 500 sank 31.94 points or 0.84 percent to close at 3,757.99.

The weakness on Wall Street reflected continued concerns about the economic outlook following the Federal Reserve's third straight 75-basis point interest rate hike on Wednesday.

While the Fed's economic projections provided a clearer outlook for future rate hikes, traders are concerned about the impact the aggressive rate increases will have on the economy. Several other central banks around the world followed the Fed's lead, including the Bank of England, which raised interest rates by 50 basis points in a split decision.

In economic news, Labor Department reported an uptick in jobless claims last week, while the Conference Board said its leading economic index fell by 0.3 percent in August after sliding by a revised 0.5 percent in July.

Crude oil prices settled higher on Thursday on concerns about tight supplies amid geopolitical tensions in Russia. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for November ended higher by $0.55 or 0.7 percent at $83.49 a barrel.

Closer to home, Taiwan will release August numbers for industrial production and retail sales later today. In July, output was up 1.12 percent on year, while retail sales jumped an annual 17.2 percent.