Taiwan Stock Market Draws A Green Light For Thursday

The Taiwan stock market has finished higher in four straight sessions, advancing more than 560 points or 3 percent along the way. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just above the 17,165-point plateau and it may tick higher again on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests mild upside, supported by crude oil prices. The European and U.S. markets were slightly higher and the Asian bourses are tipped to open in similar fashion.

The TSE finished barely higher on Wednesday as gains from the finance and cement stocks were capped by weakness from the technology companies.

For the day, the index rose 2.66 points or 0.02 percent to finish at 17,165.04 after trading between 17,056.42 and 17,274.66.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial advanced 0.90 percent, while Mega Financial collected 0.45 percent, CTBC Financial dipped 0.22 percent, Fubon Financial rallied 2.05 percent, First Financial added 0.45 percent, E Sun Financial gained 0.39 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company shed 0.50 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation fell 0.38 percent, Hon Hai Precision tanked 2.18 percent, Largan Precision rose 0.16 percent, Catcher Technology retreated 1.08 percent, MediaTek tumbled 1.84 percent, Formosa Plastic soared 2.91 percent, Asia Cement improved 0.58 percent and Taiwan Cement gathered 0.97 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is cautiously optimistic as stocks spent much of Wednesday’s session bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line before finally ending slightly higher.

The Dow added 25.07 points or 0.07 percent to finish at 34,600.38, while the NASDAQ rose 19.85 points or 0.14 percent to end at 13,756.33 and the S&P 500 was up 6.08 points or 0.14 percent to close at 4,208.12.

The early strength on Wall Street partly reflected continued optimism about the outlook for the global economy following Tuesday’s upbeat manufacturing data although trading activity remained light amid lingering inflation concerns.

The Labor Department’s looming monthly jobs report also kept some traders on the sidelines ahead of the release of the closely watched data on Friday.

Traders largely shrugged off the Federal Reserve’s Beige Book, which said the U.S. economy increased at a somewhat faster rate from early April to late May due in part to the positive effects of increased Covid-19 vaccination rates and relaxed social distancing measures.

Crude oil prices rose sharply on Wednesday, extending gains from the previous session, amid rising hopes about a pickup in energy demand and on the decision by OPEC to gradually increase crude production. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for July ended up $1.11 or 1.6 percent at $68.83 a barrel, the highest since October 2018.