(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market on Monday snapped the four-day losing streak in which it had plunged nearly 630 points or 3.6 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just beneath the 18,000-point plateau and it's poised to add to its winnings on Tuesday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to higher, with bargain hunting expected after recent heavy losses. The European markets were sharply lower and the U.S. bourses moved higher and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.
The TSE finished modestly higher on Monday following mixed performances from the financial shares and the technology stocks.
For the day, the index added 89.74 points or 0.50 percent to finish at 17,989.04 after trading between 17,682.33 and 18,004.45.
Among the actives, Cathay Financial slid 0.16 percent, while Mega Financial rose 0.14 percent, CTBC Financial collected 0.36 percent, Fubon Financial lost 0.26 percent, First Financial was down 0.20 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company and MediaTek both jumped 1.87 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation fell 0.32 percent, Hon Hai Precision advanced 0.98 percent, Largan Precision dipped 0.24 percent, Catcher Technology shed 0.63 percent, Delta Electronics eased 0.18 percent, Formosa Plastic perked 0.48 percent, Asia Cement added 0.34 percent, Taiwan Cement sank 0.53 percent and E Sun Financial was unchanged.
The lead from Wall Street ends up being positive as a late rally erased the deep losses that otherwise permeated the session.
The Dow climbed 99.13 points or 0.29 percent to finish at 34,364.50, while the NASDAQ gained 86.21 points or 0.63 percent to close at 13,855.13 and the S&P 500 rose 12.19 points or 0.28 percent to end at 4,410.13.
The stunning turnaround came as traders went bargain hunting following recent weakness on Wall Street, with some analysts describing the sell-off as overdone.
Concerns about tightening monetary policy continued to weigh on the markets early in the session ahead of this week's Federal Reserve meeting.
The Fed is scheduled to begin a two-day meeting later today, with the latest monetary policy decision due Wednesday afternoon. While the Fed is likely to leave interest rates unchanged, the accompanying statement could hint at the first rate hike as early as the next meeting in March.
Crude oil prices plunged sharply Monday amid rising fears the Federal Reserve might resort to aggressive monetary tightening. A firm dollar also weighed on oil prices on rising tensions between Russia and the West over Ukraine. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for March dropped $1.83 or 2.2 percent at $83.31 a barrel.
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