Higher Open Called For Taiwan Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market moved lower again on Friday, one day after ending the two-day slide in which it had given up almost 1,700 points or 3.4 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just above the 44,570-point plateau although it may see at least a technical rebound on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is flat to lower on concerns over the situation in the Middle East and on the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were barely in the red and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The TSE finished sharply lower on Friday following heavy damage among the financial shares, technology stocks and plastics companies.

For the day, the index crashed 1,683.54 points or 3.64 percent to finish at 44,571.76 after trading between 44,454.22 and 46,188.60.

Among the actives, Mega Financial skidded 1.07 percent, while First Financial shed 0.61 percent, Fubon Financial retreated 1.47 percent, E Sun Financial tumbled 2.54 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company surrendered 2.09 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation crashed 8.12 percent, Hon Hai Precision tanked 3.50 percent, Largan Precision plummeted 8.62 percent, Catcher Technology stumbled 2.68 percent, MediaTek cratered 9.98 percent, Delta Electronics plunged 8.59 percent, Novatek Microelectronics dropped 9.27 percent, Formosa Plastics declined 10.00 percent, Nan Ya Plastics slumped 4.52 percent, Asia Cement sank 0.97 percent and Cathay Financial and CTBC Financial were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is weak as the major averages opened lower on Friday, peeked back above the unchanged line by midday but slumped again heading into the close.

The Dow shed 44.51 points or 0.09 percent to finish at 51,876.11, while the NASDAQ sank 60.99 points or 0.24 percent to close at 25,297.62 and the S&P 500 eased 3.47 points or 0.05 percent to end at 7,354.02.

The weakness that emerged on Wall Street came un the ambiguity surrounding the peace process in the U.S.-Iran conflict, while the earlier positive bounce was the result of sliding crude oil prices.

Crude oil prices tumbled on Friday as optimism increases on resumption of oil flow from the Arab region. West Texas Intermediate crude for August delivery was down $2.60 or 3.62 percent at $69.32 per barrel.

In economic news, revised data released by the University of Michigan showed consumer sentiment in the U.S. rebounded slightly more than estimated in June. The University of Michigan said its consumer sentiment index for June was upwardly revised to 49.5 from the previously reported 48.9.