Profit Taking Likely For Taiwan Stock Market

The Taiwan stock market has climbed higher in three straight sessions, advancing more than 220 points or 1.3 percent along the way. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just above the 17,910-point plateau although it’s expected to run out of steam on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is negative, with profit taking expected particularly among the oil and technology stocks. The European and U.S. markets finished lower and the Asian markets figure to open in similar fashion.

The TSE finished modestly higher on Thursday following mixed performances from the financial shares and technology stocks.

For the day, the index gained 81.72 points or 0.46 percent to finish at 17,914.12 after trading between 17,807.12 and 17,925.12.

Among the actives, Mega Financial collected 0.28 percent, while CTBC Financial dipped 0.19 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company climbed 1.00 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation plunged 3.76 percent, Hon Hai Precision advanced 0.95 percent, Largan Precision retreated 1.46 percent, Catcher Technology rallied 2.95 percent, MediaTek dropped 0.91 percent, Delta Electronics soared 3.07 percent, Formosa Plastic gained 0.48 percent, Taiwan Cement lost 0.63 percent and Cathay Financial, Fubon Financial, First Financial, E Sun Financial and Asia Cement were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened lower on Thursday. The Dow moved into the green for a time before ending flat, while the NASDAQ and S&P 500 finished solidly in the red.

The Dow eased 0.06 points to finish at 25,754.69, while the NASDAQ tumbled 269.62 points or 1.71 percent to close at 15,517.37 and the S&P 500 dropped 33.76 points or 0.72 percent to end at 4,667.45.

The pullback on Wall Street came as traders cashed in on the recent strength in the markets, which saw stocks recover strongly from the post-Thanksgiving sell-off triggered by the detection of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus.

With concerns about the impact of the Omicron variant easing, traders are now looking ahead to next week’s Federal Reserve’s monetary policy announcement. Reports suggest the Fed could decide to double the pace of tapering its asset purchase program to $30 billion per month.

In economic news, the Labor Department said first-time jobless claims pulled back by much more than expected last week.

Crude oil settled lower Thursday amid concerns about the outlook for energy demand following several countries imposing fresh restrictions on movements to curb the spread of Omicron. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for January sank $1.42 or 2 percent at $70.94 a barrel.