Tech Shares May Drag Taiwan Shares Into The Red

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market has finished higher in two of three trading days since the end of the four-day losing streak in which it had stumbled more than 1,150 points or 4.3 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now rests just above the 23,025-point plateau although it's expected to open under pressure on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft, with oil and technology shares expected to lead the markets lower. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The TSE finished sharply higher on Thursday with gains across the board, especially among the financials, technology stocks and plastics/

For the day, the index surged 510.53 points or 2.27 percent to finish at 23,025.10 after trading between 22,817.52 and 23,147.69.

Among the actives, Mega Financial added 0.51 percent, while CTBC Financial gained 0.90 percent, First Financial advanced 0.91 percent, Fubon Financial increased 1.33 percent, E Sun Financial climbed 1.09 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company soared 3.76 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation rose 0.24 percent, Hon Hai Precision strengthened 1.46 percent, Largan Precision rallied 2.03 percent, MediaTek spiked 2.82 percent, Delta Electronics surged 4.49 percent, Novatek Microelectronics fell 0.39 percent, Formosa Plastics shed 0.42 percent, Nan Ya Plastics jumped 1.78 percent, Asia Cement improved 1.36 percent and Catcher Technology and Cathay Financial were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened slightly higher on Thursday but quickly turned lower, spending most of the day in the red before finishing under water.

The Dow sank 68.42 points or 0.16 percent to finish at 43,153.13, while the NASDAQ slumped 172.95 points or 0.89 percent to close at 19,338.29 and the S&P 500 slipped 12.57 points or 0.21 percent to end at 5,937.34.

The choppy trading on Wall Street came as traders took a step back to assess the near-term outlook for the markets following Wednesday's rally, which saw the major averages post their largest daily percentage gains in over two months.

Traders were also digesting a slew of U.S. economic data, including reports on weekly jobless claims, retail sales and import prices.

The data was largely in line with expectations and maintained optimism that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates in the first half of this year.

Oil prices fell sharply on Thursday after Israel and Hamas agreed to implement a ceasefire agreement that was drafted and approved by the UN Security Council. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for February settled lower by $1.36 or 1.7 percent at $78.68 a barrel.