(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market has moved higher in four straight sessions, improving almost 500 points or 3 percent along the way. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just above the 17,170-point plateau although it may run out of steam on Friday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is murky, with growth concerns warring with interest rate optimism. The European and U.S. markets were mixed and little changed and the Asian bourses figure to open in similar fashion.
The TSE finished modestly higher on Thursday following gains from the financial and plastic sectors, while the finance and technology stocks were mixed.
For the day, the index gained 42.40 points or 0.25 percent to finish at 17,171.18 after trading between 17,089.40 and 17,194.32.
Among the actives, Cathay Financial slipped 0.22 percent, while Mega Financial improved 0.77 percent, CTBC Financial collected 0.19 percent, First Financial strengthened 1.29 percent, Fubon Financial gained 0.32 percent, E Sun Financial soared 2.24 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company rose 0.34 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation shed 0.61 percent, Hon Hai Precision added 0.50 percent, Largan Precision sank 0.71 percent, Catcher Technology jumped 1.61 percent, MediaTek retreated 1.65 percent, Delta Electronics lost 0.49 percent, Novatek Microelectronics declined 1.32 percent, Formosa Plastics jumped 1.63 percent, Nan Ya Plastics increased 0.59 percent, Asia Cement climbed 1.10 percent, Taiwan Cement was down 0.30 percent and China Steel rallied 1.00 percent.
The lead from Wall Street offers little clarity as the major averages opened lower on Thursday and spent most of the day in the red before finishing mixed and little changed.
The Dow dipped 45.74 points or 0.13 percent to finish at 34,945.47, while the NASDAQ rose 9.84 points or 0.07 percent to close at 14,113.67 and the S&P 500 perked 5.36 points or 0.12 percent to end at 4,508.24.
A steep drop by shares of Walmart (WMT) and Cisco Systems (CSCO) weighed on the Dow, while upticks by the NASDAQ and S&P came as the latest U.S. economic data added to recent optimism about the outlook for interest rates.
The Labor Department released a report showing U.S. import and export prices both fell by more than expected in the month of October, capping off an encouraging week of inflation data.
A separate Labor Department report showing initial jobless claims climbed by much more than expected last week, while the Federal Reserve said industrial production fell more than expected in October.
Crude oil prices fell sharply Thursday on fears of a likely drop in energy demand after soft data from the U.S., Europe and Asia raised worries about an economic slowdown. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for December tumbled $3.76 or 4.9 percent at $72.90 a barrel.
