Taiwan Stock Market May Bounce Higher Again On Monday

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market moved lower again on Friday, one day after halting the two-day slide in which it had given up more than 100 points or 0.6 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just above the 17,510-point plateau although it may tick higher again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests little movement and uncertainty thanks to the ongoing hostilities in the Middle East. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were mixed and little changed and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The TSE finished slightly lower on Friday following losses from the financials , support from the plastics and a mixed picture from the technology shares.

For the day, the index lost 32.49 points or 0.19 percent to finish at 17,512.83 after trading between 17,469.87 and 17,570.63.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial slid 0.22 percent, while Mega Financial fell 0.38 percent, CTBC Financial climbed 1.06 percent, First Financial lost 0.55 percent, Fubon Financial collected 0.31 percent, E Sun Financial dipped 0.20 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company shed 0.34 percent, Largan Precision jumped 1.96 percent, MediaTek gained 0.65 percent, Delta Electronics rose 0.17 percent, Novatek Microelectronics rallied 1.59 percent, Formosa Plastics was up 0.13 percent, Nan Ya Plastics advanced 0.79 percent, Asia Cement sank 0.37 percent, Taiwan Cement perked 0.15 percent and China Steel, United Microelectronics Corporation, Hon Hai Precision and Catcher Technology were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is of little help as the major averages opened slightly higher on Friday but then hugged both sides of the line for the rest of the session, ending mixed and little changed.

The Dow sank 118.04 points or 0.31 percent to finish at 37,592.98, while the NASDAQ rose 2.58 points or 0.02 percent to close at 14,972.76 and the S&P 500 perked 3.59 points or 0.08 percent to end at 4,783.83. For the week, the NASDAQ spiked 3.1 percent, the S&P added 1.8 percent and the Dow rose 0.3 percent.

The Dow was weighed by earnings news from the likes of UnitedHealth (UNH), Bank of America (BAC), Wells Fargo (WFC) and JPMorgan Chase (JPM).

Traders were also reacting to a Labor Department report showing U.S. producer prices unexpectedly edged lower in December, adding to recent uncertainty about the outlook for interest rates.

Oil futures settled notably higher on Friday as an escalation in tensions in the Middle East raised concerns about delay in supplies. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for February ended higher by $0.66 or 0.9 percent at $72.68 a barrel. For the week, the contract shed about 1.1 percent.