Bargain Hunting May Boost Taiwan Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market headed south again on Friday, one day after snapping the two-day slide in which it had dropped more than 870 points or 3.3 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just above the 26,430-point plateau although it's tipped to open in the green on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat on an improved outlook for interest rates. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The TSE finished sharply lower on Friday following losses from the technology stocks, financial shares and plastics companies.

For the day, the index cratered 991.42 points or 3.61 percent to finish at 26,434.94 after trading between 26,395.98 and 26,821.97.

Among the actives, Mega Financial fell 0.38 percent, while Fubon Financial shed 0.67 percent, E Sun Financial lost 0.50 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company plunged 4.81 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation improved 0.78 percent, Hon Hai Precision crashed 4.86 percent, Largan Precision tumbled 2.10 percent, Catcher Technology retreated 1.66 percent, MediaTek surrendered 3.38 percent, Delta Electronics plummeted 6.18 percent, Novatek Microelectronics skidded 1.02 percent, Formosa Plastics stumbled 3.15 percent, Nan Ya Plastics cratered 7.24 percent, Asia Cement sank 0.66 percent and Cathay Financial, CTBC Financial and First Financial were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is positive as the major averages opened flat on Friday but rallied in the afternoon, finishing near daily highs.

The Dow jumped 493.15 points or 1.08 percent to finish at 46,245.41, while the NASDAQ rallied 195.03 points or 0.88 percent to end at 22,273.08 and the S&P 500 gained 64.23 points or 0.98 percent to close at 6,602.99.

For the week, the NASDAQ plunged 2.7 percent, the S&P 500 tumbled 2.0 percent and the Dow slumped 1.9 percent.

The strength that emerged on Wall Street reflected renewed optimism about the Federal Reserve lowering interest rates at its next monetary policy meeting in December following dovish remarks by New York Federal Reserve President John Williams.

Potentially adding to the optimism about the outlook for interest rates, the University of Michigan released a report showing decreases by both year-ahead inflation and long-run inflation expectations in November.

Crude oil prices slumped Friday on oversupply concerns after Ukraine expressed support for the U.S. peace plan to stop the Russia-Ukraine war. West Texas Intermediate crude for January delivery was down by $0.86 or 1.46 percent at $58.14 per barrel.

Closer to home, Taiwan will see October numbers for unemployment; in September, the jobless rate was 3.35 percent.