Taiwan Shares May Open Under Pressure

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market has moved lower in two straight sessions, slipping almost 70 points or 0.7 percent along the way. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now rests just above the 10,435-point plateau and it is expected to open in the red again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft thanks to weak earnings news and a plunge in the price of crude oil. The European and U.S. markets were down on Friday and the Asian markets are expected to follow that lead.

The TSE finished modestly lower on Friday following losses from the financial shares, technology stocks and steel and cement companies.

For the day, the index fell 62.66 points or 0.60 percent to finish at 10,436.70 after trading between 10,428.47 and 10,477.72 on turnover of 84.21 billion Taiwan dollars.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial fell 0.20 percent, while Fubon Financial lost 0.74 percent, Mega Financial retreated 1.36 percent, Largan Precision tumbled 2.78 percent, Innolux dipped 0.68 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company shed 0.70 percent, AU Optronics was unchanged, Hon Hai Precision skidded 1.29 percent, Taiwan Cement slid 0.28 percent and China Steel dropped 1.55 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as stocks saw mild selling pressure on Friday before ending in the red.

The Dow dipped 31.71 points or 0.2 percent to 21,580.07, while the NASDAQ slipped 2.25 points or 0.1 percent to 6,387.75 and the S&P fell 0.91 points 0.1 percent to 2,472.54. For the week, the Dow fell 0.3 percent, the NASDAQ surged 1.2 percent and the S&P climbed 0.5 percent.

A negative reaction to earnings news from some big-name companies weighed including General Electric (GE) and Microsoft (MSFT), while shares of Visa (V) and Capital One (COF) moved sharply higher.

Crude oil futures tumbled Friday, giving back strong gains from earlier in the week amid concerns that this week's OPEC meeting will not address the global supply glut. September WTI oil settles at $45.77/bbl, down $1.15 or 2.5 percent on Nymex. Prices were down 2.1 percent for the week.