Lower Open Predicted For Taiwan Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market on Friday ended the three-day winning streak in which it had advanced more than 210 points or 1.1 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just above the 19,680-point plateau and it's looking at another soft start again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is one of caution ahead of the FOMC meeting later this week. The European markets were mixed and flat and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The TSE finished sharply lower on Friday following losses from the financial shares and plastic stocks, while the technology companies were also largely in the red.

For the day, the index stumbled 255.42 points or 1.28 percent to finish at the daily low of 19,682.50 after peaking at 19,888.13.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial retreated 1.35 percent, while CTBC Financial sank 0.78 percent, First Financial eased 0.18 percent, Fubon Financial stumbled 1.56 percent, E Sun Financial collected 0.58 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company plunged 3.95 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation declined 1.33 percent, Hon Hai Precision skyrocketed 9.09 percent, Largan Precision dipped 0.20 percent, Catcher Technology rallied 2.87 percent, MediaTek skidded 1.30 percent, Delta Electronics surrendered 2.42 percent, Novatek Microelectronics dropped 1.04 percent, Formosa Plastics sank 1.01 percent, Nan Ya Plastics plummeted 3.37 percent, Asia Cement was down 0.12 percent, China Steel gained 0.43 percent and Mega Financial and Taiwan Cement were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened lower on Friday and remained under water throughout the trading day.

The Dow tumbled 190.89 points or 0.49 percent to finish at 38,714.77, while the NASDAQ dropped 155.36 points or 0.96 percent to close at 15,973.17 and the S&P 500 sank 33.39 points or 0.65 percent to end at 5,117.09. For the week, the NASDAQ fell 0.7 percent, the S&P eased 0.1 percent and the Dow was nearly flat.

The weakness on Wall Street reflected concerns about the outlook for interest rates ahead of the Fed's monetary policy meeting later this week.

While the Fed is widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged, traders will look to the accompanying statement for clues about the outlook for rates. Recent hotter-than-expected inflation readings have reduced optimism that the Fed's first rate cut may come in June.

In economic news, the Labor Department said U.S. import prices increased in line with estimates in February, while export prices exceeded expectations. The Fed also noted a slight increase in U.S. industrial production in February.

Oil prices dropped on Friday, retreating from multi-month highs, due largely to profit taking after recent strong gains. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for April ended down by $0.22 at $81.04 a barrel.