Taiwan Stock Market May Tick Higher Again On Monday

The Taiwan stock market bounced higher again on Friday, one day after ending the three-day winning streak in which it had advanced almost 170 points or 1.1 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now rests just above the 15,825-point plateau and it’s likely to remain steady in that neighborhood again on Monday.

There’s not much of a global forecast, as most of the markets in Europe and the United States were closed on Friday for Good Friday. Key U.S. employment data was roughly in line with expectations, suggesting a steady if quiet session.

The TSE finished slightly higher on Friday following mixed performances from the financials, plastics and technology stocks.

For the day, the index rose 25.73 points or 0.16 percent to finish at 15,836.50 after trading between 15,811.19 and 15,877.99.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial collected 0.60 percent, while Mega Financial slumped 0.61 percent, Fubon Financial rose 0.18 percent, First Financial slid 0.38 percent, E Sun Financial tumbled 1.77 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company perked 0.19 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation sank 0.76 percent, Hon Hai Precision shed 0.48 percent, Largan Precision dropped 0.70 percent, Catcher Technology declined 0.80 percent, MediaTek lost 0.53 percent, Delta Electronics eased 0.17 percent, Novatek Microelectronics advanced 0.80 percent, Formosa Plastics skidded 0.66 percent, Nan Ya Plastics was up 0.26 percent, Asia Cement fell 0.35 percent, Taiwan Cement dipped 0.14 percent and CTBC Financial and China Steel were unchanged.

There is no lead from Wall Street as the stock and oil markets were closed for Good Friday. The big catalyst for the day, however, was the closely watched U.S. jobs report for March.

The Labor Department said that employment in the U.S. increased roughly in line with forecasts in March as non-farm payroll employment climbed by 236,000 jobs after jumping by an upwardly revised 326,000 jobs in February.

Economists had expected employment to rise by about 240,000 jobs compared to the addition of 311,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month.

Also, the unemployment rate edged down to 3.5 percent in March from 3.6 percent in February; the unemployment rate was expected to be unchanged.

The numbers fall in the butter zone, which is to say good enough to dispel fears of an economic slowdown but not so good as the encourage the Federal Reserve to feel comfortable applying another rate hike anytime soon.

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