Taiwan Stock Market May Run Out Of Steam

(RTTNews) – The Taiwan stock market has climbed higher in consecutive trading days, gathering more than 50 point or 0.4 percent along the way. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now rests just shy of the 12,120-point plateau although investors may cash in on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft on concerns regarding the coronavirus outbreak in China. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian bourses figure to follow that lead.

The TSE finished modestly higher on Tuesday following gains from the financial shares and mixed performances from the technology and cement stocks.

For the day, the index added 28.42 points or 0.24 percent to finish at 12,118.71 after trading between 12,101.55 and 12,151.42.

Among the actives, Mega Financial collected 0.78 percent, while CTBC Financial jumped 1.33 percent, Fubon Financial eased 0.11 percent, First Financial advanced 0.82 percent, E Sun Financial climbed 1.03 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation added 0.31 percent, Largan Precision dipped 0.20 percent, Catcher Technology spiked 2.62 percent, MediaTek shed 0.36 percent, Asia Cement sank 0.31 percent, Taiwan Cement was up 0.11 percent and Formosa Plastic, Cathay Financial, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company and Hon Hai Precision were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as stocks fluctuated on Tuesday before ending in the red, pulling back from last week’s record closing highs.

The Dow shed 152.06 points or 0.52 percent to 29,196.04, while the NASDAQ lost 18.14 points or 0.19 percent to 9,370.81 and the S&P 500 fell 8.83 points or 0.27 percent to 3,320.79.

Stocks moved to the downside on concerns about the economic impact of the coronavirus outbreak. Chinese officials said the coronavirus outbreak has resulted in six deaths among nearly 300 confirmed cases, with the virus confirmed to be transmissible among humans.

Adding to the negative sentiment, the International Monetary Fund downwardly revised its forecast for global economic outlook on bigger than expected slowdowns in emerging markets like India.

Crude oil prices edged lower on Tuesday after the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said the sharp climb in U.S. oil production outweighed concerns about supply disruptions in Libya. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for March, slipped $0.20 or 0.3 percent to $58.38 a barrel.

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