Taiwan Bourse Tipped To Head South Again On Wednesday

The Taiwan stock market on Tuesday ended the two-day slide in which it had stumbled more than 630 points or 2.7 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just above the 22,390-point plateau although it’s tipped to open in the red on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft on rising geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

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

For the day, the index advanced 165.85 points or 0.75 percent to finish at 22,390.39 after trading between 22,311.33 and 22,446.86.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial fell 0.35 percent, while Mega Financial collected 0.38 percent, First Financial shed 0.55 percent, Fubon Financial rose 0.33 percent, E Sun Financial spiked 2.14 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company strengthened 1.57 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation dipped 0.19 percent, Hon Hai Precision slid 0.27 percent, Largan Precision soared 3.35 percent, Catcher Technology climbed 1.27 percent, MediaTek accelerated 2.98 percent, Delta Electronics advanced 1.05 percent, Novatek Microelectronics slid 0.19 percent, Formosa Plastics dropped 0.93 percent, Nan Ya Plastics perked 0.22 percent, Asia Cement lost 0.63 percent and CTBC Financial was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened lower on Tuesday and remained in the red throughout the session.

The Dow dropped 173.18 points or 0.41 percent to finish at 42,156.97, while the NASDAQ plummeted 278.81 points or 1.53 percent to close at 17,910.36 and the S&P sank 53.73 points or 0.93 percent to end at 5,708.75.

The weakness on Wall Street came on rising tensions in the Middle East after Iran launched a ballistic missile attack against Israel. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said the attack was in response to the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and others in recent Israeli airstrikes.

A senior White House official said earlier in the day that the U.S. had indications Iran was preparing to imminently launch a ballistic missile attack against Israel, contributing to the early sell-off by stocks.

The news from the Middle East largely overshadowed separate report showing a continued contraction by U.S. manufacturing activity in September and an unexpected increase by U.S. job openings in August.

Oil prices moved higher on Tuesday amid the possibility of tight supplies due to an escalation in tensions in the Middle East after Iran launched a missile attack on Israel. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for November closed up $1.66 or nearly 2.5 percent at $69.83 a barrel.