Overbought Taiwan Bourse Due For Consolidation

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market has tracked higher in seven straight sessions, skyrocketing more than 3,650 points or 10.1 percent in that span. Now at a fresh record closing high, the Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just above the 35,400-point plateau although investors may lock in gains on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is positive, riding solely on the strength of technology companies. The European and U.S. markets were up and the Asian bourses are likely to follow that lead.

The TSE finished sharply higher on Wednesday following gains from the technology and plastics companies, while the financial sector came in mixed.

For the day, the index surged 712.25 points or 2.05 percent to finish at 35,413.07 after trading between 34,753.31 and 35,521.54.

Among the actives, Mega Financial shed 0.61 percent, while CTBC Financial perked 0.16 percent, First Financial fell 0.33 percent, Fubon Financial slumped 1.28 percent, E Sun Financial collected 0.72 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company jumped 2.54 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation tumbled 2.96 percent, Hon Hai Precision surged 6.25 percent, Largan Precision lost 0.62 percent, MediaTek spiked 2.47 percent, Delta Electronics rallied 3.61 percent, Novatek Microelectronics added 0.52 percent, Formosa Plastics skyrocketed 9.88 percent, Nan Ya Plastics soared 4.52 percent, Asia Cement rose 0.28 percent and Catcher Technology and Cathay Financial were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is firm as the major averages opened higher on Wednesday and remained in the green throughout the trading day, ending at session highs.

The Dow climbed 307.65 points or 0.63 percent to finish at 49,482.15, while the NASDAQ jumped 288.40 points or 1.26 percent to close at 23,152.08 and the S&P 500 gained 56.06 points or 0.81 percent to end at 6,946.13.

The strength on Wall Street reflected optimism ahead of the release of earnings news from AI chipmaker and market leader Nvidia (NVDA) after the close of Wednesday's trade. The company's earnings came in at $42.960 billion, or $1.76 per share compared to $22.091 billion, or $0.89 per share, last year.

Software stocks turned in some of the market's best performances on the day, with the Dow Jones U.S. Software Index spiking by 3.1 percent. The index continued to regain ground after slumping to its lowest closing level in ten months on Monday amid easing AI disruption concerns.

The price of crude oil ticked lower on Wednesday after the Energy Information Administration reported a substantial rebound by U.S. crude oil inventories last week. West Texas Intermediate crude for April delivery slipped $0.15 or 0.2 percent to $65.48 a barrel.

Closer to home, Taiwan will release Q4 figures for current account later today; in the previous three months, the current account surplus was $45.84 billion.