Taiwan Stock Market May Extend Losing Streak

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market has finished lower in three straight sessions, sliding almost 70 points or 0.8 percent along the way. The Taiwan Stock Exchange settled just above the 8,740-point plateau, and the market is looking at another soft start again on Friday. The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft, thanks to falling crude oil prices and concerns over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were mixed but little changed, and the Asian markets are expected to split the difference.

The TSE finished modestly lower on Thursday as losses from the technology stocks were tempered by support from the plastic sector.

For the day, the index fell 22.71 points or 0.26 percent to finish at 8,743.38 after trading between 8,676.87 and 8,765.96 on turnover of 79.35 billion Taiwan dollars.

Among the actives, Hon Hai Precision added 0.36 percent, while Compal Electronics was unchanged, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company slid 0.63 percent, Formosa Plastics gained 0.38 percent and Nan Ya Plastics advanced 0.90 percent. The lead from Wall Street is negative as stocks opened in the red on Thursday before rebounding to end flat in the last day of the holiday-shortened week. The S&P 500 eased 0.77 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 2,035.94, while the Dow crept up 13.14 points or 0.1 percent to 17,515.73 and the NASDAQ inched up 4.64 points or 0.1 percent to 4,773.50. For the week, the S&P 500 slid 0.7 percent, while the Dow and the NASDAQ both fell 0.5 percent. Profit taking contributed to the initial weakness, along with concerns about the outlook for interest rates following comments from St. Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard. Bullard said the relatively minor downgrades to the Fed's economic outlook suggest the next rate hike "may not be far off provided that the economy evolves as expected." A decrease by the price of crude oil also weighed on the markets in early trading, although a rebound contributed to the subsequent recovery by the markets. On the economic front, the Labor Department noted a modest increase in initial jobless claims in the week ended March 19. A separate report from the Commerce Department showed a pullback in durable goods orders in February.