Taiwan Investors May Lock In Gains On Monday

The Taiwan stock market has moved higher in four straight sessions, gathering almost 500 points or 3 percent along the way. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now rests just above the 16,920-point plateau although it’s likely due for profit-taking on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to lower on renewed concerns over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The TSE finished modestly higher on Friday following gains from the technology stocks, weakness from the financials and mixed performances from the plastic and cement sectors.

For the day, the index added 113.32 points or 0.67 percent to finish at the daily high of 16,920.92 after moving as low as 16,787.74.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial dropped 0.53 percent, while Mega Financial collected 0.13 percent, CTBC Financial lost 0.60 percent, First Financial sank 0.74 percent, Fubon Financial retreated 0.64 percent, E Sun Financial tumbled 1.61 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company rallied 1.45 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation added 0.53 percent, Hon Hai Precision shed 0.47 percent, Largan Precision gained 0.48 percent, Catcher Technology fell 0.27 percent, MediaTek surged 4.09 percent, Delta Electronics improved 0.59 percent, Novatek Microelectronics soared 3.23 percent, Formosa Plastics perked 0.24 percent, Asia Cement gathered 0.50 percent, Taiwan Cement slumped 1.13 percent and China Steel and Nan Ya Plastics were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is weak as the major averages opened lower on Friday and worsened as the day progressed, ending near session lows.

The Dow tumbled 288.86 points or 0.83 percent to finish at 34,618.86, while the NASDAQ plunged 217.76 points or 1.56 percent to close at 13,708.33 and the S&P 500 sank 54.78 points or 1.22 percent to end at 4,450.32.

For the week, the Dow rose 0.1 percent, the NASDAQ fell 0.4 percent and the S&P dipped 0.2 percent.

The pullback on Wall Street reflected profit taking ahead of this week’s Federal Reserve meeting. The Fed is widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged this week, but the latest batch of U.S. economic data reignited concerns about the possibility of future rate hikes.

The Labor Department said on Friday that import and export prices rose significantly more than expected, while the New York Fed noted a big jump in New York manufacturing activity this month – all of which bode ill for the outlook for interest rates.

Oil prices climbed higher on Friday, rising on optimism over the outlook for Chinese demand after reports showed Chinese refiners broke refining rate records in August. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for October ended higher by $0.61 or 0.7 percent at $90.77 a barrel.

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