Taiwan Stock Market Due For Profit Taking

The Taiwan stock market has tracked higher in five straight sessions, advancing more than 1,550 points or 4.9 percent along the way. Now at a fresh record closing high, the Taiwan Stock Exchange sits just above the 32,800-point plateau although investors figure to lock in gains on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft amid geopolitical concerns, although support from gold and oil figure to limit the downside. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were mixed and flat and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The TSE finished sharply higher on Wednesday following gains from the plastics companies and mixed performances from the financial and technology sectors.

For the day, the index jumped 485.90 points or 1.50 percent to finish at the daily high of 32,803.82 after trading as low as 32,381.76.

Among the actives, Mega Financial eased 0.13 percent, while CTBC Financial collected 0.79 percent, Fubon Financial was up 0.11 percent, E Sun Financial dipped 0.30 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company soared 2.25 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation lost 0.39 percent, Largan Precision perked 0.21 percent, Catcher Technology slipped 0.25 percent, MediaTek rose 0.28 percent, Delta Electronics rallied 2.40 percent, Novatek Microelectronics shed 0.51 percent, Formosa Plastics added 0.59 percent, Nan Ya Plastics climbed 1.13 percent, Asia Cement fell 0.28 percent and Hon Hai Precision, Cathay Financial and First Financial were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is of little help as the major averages opened higher on Wednesday but tailed off and hugged the line, finishing mixed and little changed.

The Dow rose 12.19 points or 0.02 percent to finish at 49,015.60, while the NASDAQ added 40.35 points or 0.17 percent to close at 23,857.45 and the S&P 500 dipped 0.57 points or 0.01 percent to end at 6,978.03.

The choppy trading on Wall Street continued after the Federal Reserve announced its widely expected decision to leave interest rates unchanged.

The Fed said the decision to keep rates steady came amid elevated uncertainty about the economic outlook. The central bank also said it remains attentive to the risks to both sides of its dual mandate of maximum employment and inflation at the rate of 2 percent over the long run.

Despite the choppy trading by the broader markets, gold stocks moved sharply higher amid a continued surge by the price of the precious metal, driving the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index up by 2.7 percent to a new record closing high.

Crude oil prices soared on Wednesday as Iran rejected any nuclear talks under threat even as a massive U.S. armada nears the Middle East. West Texas Intermediate crude for March delivery was up $0.85 or 1.36 percent at $63.24 per barrel.