Lower open expected for Taiwan stock market

(RTTNews) – The Taiwanese stock market has risen in two consecutive sessions, gaining more than 200 points, or 1.2 percent, along the way. The Taiwan Stock Exchange is now just above the 17,470 point plateau, although it is likely to head south on Monday.

The global forecast for Asian markets is weak amid ongoing coronavirus concerns. European markets were mixed and little changed and US markets fell and Asian markets share the difference.

The TSE ended sharply higher on Friday after gains from financial stocks, technology stocks and cement companies.

For the day, the index jumped 170.27 points or 0.98 percent to finish at the daily high of 17,474.57 after a low of 17,270.28.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial gained 0.85 percent, while Mega Financial took in 0.46 percent, CTBC Financial improved 0.44 percent, Fubon Financial rose 0.26 percent, First Financial rose 0.67 percent, E Sun Financial rose 0.1 19 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company added 0.48 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation climbed 1.04 percent, Hon Hai Precision rose 0.93 percent, Largan Precision shrank 1.54 percent, Catcher Technology peaked 2.88 percent, MediaTek rose 2.66 percent, Delta Electronics improved 0.19 percent, Formosa Plastic improved 0.10 percent, Asia Cement gained 1.35 percent and Taiwan Cement rose 1.66 percent.

Wall Street’s lead is negative during Friday’s session, bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line before finally ending in the red, exacerbating recent losses.

The Dow lost 271.68 points or 0.78 percent to end at 34,607.72, while the NASDAQ lost 132.81 points or 0.87 percent to end at 15,115.49 and the S&P 500 fell 34.70 points or 0.77 percent to close at 4,458.58. For the week, the Dow lost 2.2 percent, the NASDAQ fell 1.6 percent and the S&P fell 1.7 percent.

Some initial strength on Wall Street came from bargain hunting, but buying interest quickly waned as traders continued to express concerns about the economic impact of the delta variant.

Traders may also have been wary of buying stocks ahead of the Federal Reserve’s next monetary policy meeting later this month. The Fed can provide an update on plans for its asset purchase program, although recent signs of slowing economic momentum may prompt the central bank to cut back.

In US economic news, the Labor Department reported that producer prices rose slightly more than expected in August.

Crude oil futures came in sharply higher Friday on signs of a decline in US crude supply due to the impact of Hurricane Ida. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for October finished $1.58 or 2.3 percent at $69.72 a barrel. WTI crude oil futures gained 0.6 percent this week.

The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.