(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market has finished lower in two straight sessions, sinking almost 330 points or 0.8 percent along the way. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just above the 39,300-point plateau and it's expected to open under pressure again on Thursday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft on surging oil prices and uncertainty about the conflict in the Middle East. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were mixed and little changed and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.
The TSE finished modestly lower on Wednesday following losses from the technology stocks and mixed performances from the financial and plastics companies. For the day, the index lost 218.23 points or 0.55 percent to finish at 39,303.50 after trading between 38,896.30 and 39,548.18. Among the actives, Cathay Financial dipped 0.16 percent, while Mega Financial eased 0.12 percent, CTBC Financial fell 0.38 percent, First Financial collected 0.88 percent, Fubon Financial rallied 3.05 percent, E Sun Financial was down 0.15 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company retreated 1.58 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation sank 0.80 percent, Hon Hai Precision slipped 0.22 percent, Largan Precision added 0.58 percent, Catcher Technology plunged 6.28 percent, MediaTek declined 1.53 percent, Delta Electronics jumped 1.88 percent, Novatek Microelectronics dropped 0.97 percent, Formosa Plastics lost 0.20 percent, Nan Ya Plastics spiked 2.35 percent and Asia Cement gained 0.28 percent.
The lead from Wall Street is uninspired as the major averages opened lower on Wednesday and hugged the line for most of the day, finally ending mixed.
The Dow dropped 280.12 points or 0.57 percent to finish at 48,861.81, while the NASDAQ perked 9.44 points or 0.04 percent to close at 24,673.24 and the S&P 500 eased 2.85 points or 0.04 percent to end at 7,135.95.
The lackluster performance on Wall Street came as traders were reluctant to make significant moves ahead of the release of earnings news after the close from big-name tech companies such as Alphabet (GOOGL), Amazon (AMZN), Meta Platforms (META) and Microsoft (MSFT).
Traders also kept an eye on the Federal Reserve's latest monetary policy announcement, with the central bank announcing its widely expected decision to leave interest rates unchanged in an unusually divided vote.
Crude oil prices surged again on Wednesday as an end to the Middle East war still remains elusive, keeping the blockade on the Strait of Hormuz in place. West Texas Intermediate crude for June delivery was up $6.79 or 6.79 percent at $106.72 per barrel.
Closer to home, Taiwan will provide preliminary Q1 numbers for gross domestic product later today; in the previous three months, GDP was up 12.65 percent on year.
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