Taiwan Stock Market Tipped To Open In The Red

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market has moved lower in two straight sessions, dropping more than 210 points or 1.5 percent along the way. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now rests just beneath the 14,530-point plateau and it's expected to open under pressure again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is negative on continuing concerns over the outlook for interest rates and a global recession. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian bourses are expected to follow that lead.

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

For the day, the index tumbled 205.55 points or 1.40 percent to finish at 14,528.55 after trading between 14,447.77 and 14,568.31.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial and Hon Hai Precision both dropped 0.99 percent, while Mega Financial weakened 1.12 percent, CTBC Financial plummeted 2.20 percent, Fubon Financial plunged 2.09 percent, First Financial sank 0.76 percent, E Sun Financial declined 1.42 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company and Largan Precision both tumbled 1.98 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation rose 0.11 percent, Catcher Technology skidded 1.15 percent, MediaTek plunged 3.08 percent, Delta Electronics retreated 1.52 percent, Novatek Microelectronics spiked 1.94 percent, China Steel added 0.51 percent, Formosa Plastics slumped 1.46 percent, Nan Ya Plastics tanked 2.16 percent, Asia Cement rallied 2.32 percent and Taiwan Cement soared 3.13 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is weak as the major averages opened lower on Friday and remained in the red throughout the session.

The Dow tumbled 281.74 points or 0.85 percent to finish at 32,920.46, while the NASDAQ dropped 105.09 points or 0.97 percent to close at 10,705.41 and the S&P 500 sank 43.39 points or 1.11 percent to end at 3,852.36.

For the week, the NASDAQ plunged 2.7 percent, the S&P declined 2.1 percent and the Dow retreated 1.7 percent.

The sell-off on Wall Street came amid ongoing concerns about the outlook for interest rates and the economy. The Fed's hawkish tone in its latest monetary policy announcement has added to worries about the central bank's aggressive rate hikes tipping the economy into a recession.

While inflation has recently shown signs of slowing, the Fed signaled it plans to continue raising interest rates next year.

Crude oil prices fell sharply Friday amid concerns about the outlook for energy demand due to a global economic slowdown. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for January ended down by $1.82 or 2.4 percent at $74.29 a barrel. WTI crude futures gained 4.4 percent in the week.