Taiwan Stock Market tipped to open in the red

The Taiwanese stock market has moved lower in two straight sessions, falling more than 210 points or 1.5 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange is now just below the 14,530 plateau and is expected to reopen under pressure on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is negative due to ongoing concerns about the interest rate outlook and a global recession. European and US markets fell and Asian stock markets are expected to follow suit.

The TSE ended sharply lower on Friday after losses on financial stocks, technology equities and plastics companies, while cement stocks provided support.

During the day, the index fell 205.55 points or 1.40 percent to finish at 14,528.55 after trading between 14,447.77 and 14,568.31.

Among the active, Cathay Financial and Hon Hai Precision both fell 0.99 percent, while Mega Financial weakened 1.12 percent, CTBC Financial plummeted 2.20 percent, Fubon Financial plummeted 2.09 percent, First Financial 0, 76 percent down, E Sun Financial down 1.42 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company and Largan Precision both down 1.98 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation up 0.11 percent, Catcher Technology slipped 1.15 percent, MediaTek plummeted with 3.08 percent, Delta Electronics retreated 1.52 percent, Novatek Microelectronics peaked 1.94 percent, China Steel rose 0.51 percent, Formosa Plastics fell 1.46 percent. Nan Ya Plastics lost 2.16 percent, Asia Cement gained 2.32 percent and Taiwan Cement rose 3.13 percent.

Wall Street’s lead is tenuous as major averages opened lower on Friday and remained in the red throughout the session.

The Dow fell 281.74 points or 0.85 percent to finish at 32,920.46, while the NASDAQ fell 105.09 points or 0.97 percent to close at 10,705.41 and the S&P 500 fell 43.39 points or 1.11 percent to end at 3,852.36.

For the week, the NASDAQ was down 2.7 percent, the S&P was down 2.1 percent and the Dow retreated 1.7 percent.

The sell-off on Wall Street came amid lingering concerns about the outlook for interest rates and the economy. The Fed’s aggressive tone in its latest monetary policy announcement has heightened concerns about the central bank’s aggressive rate hikes pushing the economy into recession.

While inflation has recently shown signs of slowing down, the Fed has signaled its intention to raise interest rates further next year.

Crude oil prices fell sharply on Friday amid concerns about the outlook for energy demand due to a global economic slowdown. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for January ended up $1.82 or 2.4 percent at $74.29 a barrel. WTI crude oil futures rose 4.4 percent this week.

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