Higher Open Predicted For Taiwan Stock Market

Ahead of the long weekend for Children’s Day, the Taiwan stock market has alternated between positive and negative finishes through the last six trading days since the end of the two-day slide in which it had slumped more than 100 points or 0.5 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just beneath the 20,340-point plateau and it figures to open higher again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is cautiously optimistic following better than expected U.S. employment data. 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 lower on Wednesday following losses from the financial, technology and plastic stocks, while the steel and cement companies offered support.

For the day, the index sank 129.00 points or 0.63 percent to finish at 20,337.60 after trading between 20,269.66 and 20,403.73.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial tumbled 1.84 percent, while Mega Financial retreated 1.36 percent, CTBC Financial skidded 1.10 percent, First Financial tanked 2.16 percent, Fubon Financial slumped 1.29 percent, E Sun Financial declined 1.47 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company dropped 1.27 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation sank 0.96 percent, Catcher Technology shed 0.70 percent, MediaTek fell 0.43 percent, Delta Electronics surrendered 1.78 percent, Novatek Microelectronics rose 0.34 percent, Formosa Plastics weakened 1.13 percent, Nan Ya Plastics lost 1.05 percent, Asia Cement perked 0.12 percent, Taiwan Cement gained 0.62 percent, China Steel rallied 1.44 percent and Hon Hai Precision and Largan Precision were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is positive as the major averages opened higher and remained firmly in the green throughout the session.

The Dow jumped 307.06 points or 0.80 percent to finish at 38,904.04, while the NASDAQ rallied 199.42 points or 1.24 percent to end at 16,248.52 and the S&P 500 advanced 57.13 points or 1.11 percent to close at 5,204.34.

For the week, the Dow plunged 2.3 percent, the S&P 500 slumped 1.0 percent and the NASDAQ slid 0.8 percent.

The strength on Wall Street followed the release of the closely watched Labor Department report showing much stronger than expected job growth in March.

While the stronger than expected job growth may have added to recent concerns about the outlook for interest rates, the report also showed a continued slowdown in the annual rate of wage growth.

Oil futures rose on Friday, extending recent gains on supply worries due to geopolitical tensions. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for May added $0.32 or 0.37 percent at $86.91 a barrel, settling at a fresh five-month high. WTI crude futures gained 4 percent in the week.

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