Taiwan Stock Market Tipped To Extend Its Gains

The Taiwan stock market bounced higher again on Wednesday, one session after ending the two-day winning streak in which it had gathered almost 300 points or 1.9 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just above the 16,565-point plateau and it’s expected to add to its winnings on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat on optimism regarding the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The TSE finished modestly higher on Wednesday following mixed performances from the financial shares, technology stocks and cement companies.

For the day, the index added 66.93 points or 0.41 percent to finish at 16,565.83 after trading between 16,514.30 and 16,617.06.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial gained 0.96 percent, while CTBC Financial collected 0.52 percent, Fubon Financial jumped 1.22 percent, First Financial lost 0.36 percent, E Sun Financial sank 0.92 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company added 0.56 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation rallied 2.22 percent, Hon Hai Precision strengthened 1.46 percent, Largan Precision fell 0.30 percent, Catcher Technology advanced 1.02 percent, MediaTek climbed 1.10 percent, Delta Electronics shed 0.62 percent, Novatek Microelectronics tanked 2.11 percent, Formosa Plastic improved 0.47 percent, Nan Ya Plastics was up 0.12 percent, Asia Cement eased 0.11 percent, Taiwan Cement rose 0.33 percent and Mega Financial was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is broadly positive as the major averages hugged the unchanged line for most of the day before skyrocketing in the final hour.

The Dow surged 932.27 points or 2.81 percent to finish at 34,061.06, while the NASDAQ soared 401.10 points or 3.19 percent to end at 12,964.86 and the S&P 500 jumped 124.69 points or 2.99 percent to close at 4,300.17.

The late-day rally on Wall Street came after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell indicated the central bank does not plan to raise interest rates as aggressively as some had feared.

The comments from Powell came after the Fed announced its widely expected decision to raise interest rates by half a percentage point in an effort to return elevated inflation to its 2 percent objective – even though overall U.S. economy activity edged down in the first quarter.

In economic news, the Institute for Supply Management showed an unexpected slowdown in the pace of growth in U.S. service sector activity in April. Also, payroll processor ADP showed U.S. private sector job growth slowed more than expected last month.

Crude oil prices rose sharply Wednesday, lifted by the European Union’s decision to impose sanctions on Russian oil. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for June climbed $5.58 or 5.5 percent to $107.79 a barrel.