Taiwan Bourse Tipped To Open In The Red On Thursday

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market on Wednesday halted the five-day losing streak in which it had plunged almost 900 points or 4.4 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just above the 20,210-point plateau although it's expected to open under pressure on Thursday.

The global forecast for thew Asian markets is mixed to lower, with oil and technology stocks likely to weigh. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The TSE finished sharply higher on Wednesday following gains from the financial shares, technology stocks and cement companies.

For the day, the index surged 311.37 points or 1.56 percent to finish at 20,213.33 after trading between 19,986.62 and 20,264.99.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial was up 0.10 percent, while Mega Financial slid 0.26 percent, CTBC Financial jumped 1.78 percent, First Financial collected 0.56 percent, Fubon Financial added 0.46 percent, E Sun Financial improved 0.76 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company rallied 2.03 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation rose 0.40 percent, Hon Hai Precision soared 3.90 percent, Largan Precision slumped 1.12 percent, Catcher Technology perked 0.24 percent, MediaTek shed 0.47 percent, Delta Electronics spiked 2.56 percent, Novatek Microelectronics accelerated 3.16 percent, Formosa Plastics sank 0.29 percent, Nan Ya Plastics dropped 0.90 percent, Asia Cement gathered 0.12 percent, Taiwan Cement gained 0.62 percent and China Steel advanced 0.82 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened higher on Wednesday but quickly turned lower, spending most of the rest of the day in the red.

The Dow shed 45.66 points or 0.12 percent to finish at 37,753.31, while the NASDAQ tumbled 181.88 points or 1.15 percent to end at 15,683.37 and the S&P 500 sank 29.20 points or 0.58 percent to close at 5,022.21.

The lower close on Wall Street came on concerns about the outlook for interest rates following remarks by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, who suggested rates are likely to remain higher for longer amid a "lack of progress" toward reaching the central bank's inflation goal.

Weakness among technology stocks weighed on the tech-heavy NASDAQ as shares of Nvidia (NVDA) came under pressure, while the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index also slumped.

Crude oil prices tumbled on Wednesday, adding to modest losses in the two previous sessions after data showed a surge in U.S. crude oil inventories. West Texas Intermediate crude for May delivery plunged $2.67 or 3.1 percent to $82.69 a barrel.