Higher Open Predicted For Taiwan Stock Market

(RTTNews) - Ahead of the long break for the Lunar New Year, the Taiwan stock market had moved higher in three straight sessions, collecting more than 200 points or 1.4 percent along the way. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now rests just above the 14,930-point plateau and it's expected to open in the green when it returns on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is flat to higher ahead of this week's FOMC meeting. The European and U.S. markets saw mild upside and the Asian bourses are expected to open in similar fashion.

The TSE finished slightly higher on January 17 following gains from the financials and plastics, while the technology and cement stocks were mixed.

For the day, the index picked up 5.93 points or 0.04 percent to finish at 14,932.93 after trading between 14,884.78 and 14,945.23.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial added 0.60 percent, while CTBC Financial collected 0.65 percent, Fubon Financial gained 0.67 percent, First Financial perked 0.19 percent, E Sun Financial slumped 1.23 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company shed 0.40 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation rallied 2.34 percent, Largan Precision strengthened 1.22 percent, Catcher Technology dipped 0.28 percent, MediaTek retreated 1.56 percent, Delta Electronics jumped 1.60 percent, Novatek Microelectronics advanced 0.87 percent, Formosa Plastics gathered 0.34 percent, Nan Ya Plastics rose 0.40 percent, Asia Cement was up 0.12 percent, Taiwan Cement declined 1.37 percent and Hon Hai Precision and Mega Financial were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street continues to be positive as the major averages shook off early listlessness to move into the green in afternoon trade.

The Dow added 28.68 points or 0.08 percent to finish at 33,978.08, while the NASDAQ jumped 109.31 points or 0.95 percent to end at 11,621.71 and the S&P 500 rose 10.13 points or 0.25 percent to close at 4,070.56.

For the week, the NASDAQ soared 4.3 percent, the S&P 500 surged 2.5 percent and the Dow jumped 1.8 percent.

The choppy trading on Wall Street came as traders looked ahead to the Federal Reserve's highly anticipated monetary policy meeting this week. The Fed is widely expected to slow the pace of interest rate hikes to 25 basis points, but traders will look to the accompanying statement for clues about the outlook for further rate hikes.

In economic news, the Commerce Department said personal income increased in line with estimates in December, while personal spending eased in line with expectations. The report also said core consumer prices, which exclude food and energy prices, rose more than expected.

A separate report from the National Association of Realtors showed an unexpected rebound in pending home sales in December, while the University of Michigan upwardly revised its reading on consumer sentiment in January.

Crude oil prices fell Friday amid uncertainty about the outlook for oil demand. Profit taking after recent gains and indications that oil supply from Russia will surge also weighed on oil prices. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for March sank $1.33 or 1.6 percent at $79.68 a barrel. WTI crude futures shed 2.4 percent in the week.