Taiwan's stock market is currently in an upward trajectory, closing higher for the fifth consecutive session. Its recent advancement of more than 840 points or 4.3 percent has resulted in the Taiwan Stock Exchange garnering just over 19,785 points. However, it's anticipated that investors may start to secure their profits on the approaching Monday.
A gentle decline is predicted for the worldwide Asian markets forecast, particularly affecting stocks within the energy and technology sectors. Stability can be observed within European markets, demonstrating a mix of minor declines and stable performances, while U.S. markets are on a downfall. This mixed bag of results is likely to affect the Asian markets.
The Taiwan Stock Exchange (TSE) saw moderate gains on Friday, led by financial shares, despite the loss sustained by the plastics sector and diverse performances within the cement and technology sectors. Specifically, the index rose by 91.82 points, or 0.47 percent, ending at 19,785.32 after undergoing fluctuations between 19,638.13 and 20,065.50.
Performance-wise, Cathay Financial gained by 1.00 percent, Mega Financial by 1.53 percent, CTBC Financial by 1.34 percent, and First Financial by 0.37 percent, while Fubon Financial jumped 1.62 percent. On the other hand, E Sun Financial fell by 0.39 percent. Meanwhile, semiconductor companies showed strength, with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company rising by 3.16 percent and United Microelectronics Corporation by 3.29 percent. Other notable market movements include the 2.33 percent fall in the Hon Hai Precision, and Delta Electronics' impressive gain of 5.05 percent.
In the U.S., Wall Street performances were generally disappointing. After an initially optimistic Friday opening, the major averages fell into the red and finished there. For that week, the NASDAQ, the Dow, and the S&P 500 all fell, by 1.2 percent, 0.9 percent, and 0.3 percent respectively.
Early Wall Street success was attributed to promising monthly jobs report from the Labor Department bolstering optimism for interest rate outlooks. Despite job growth in February exceeding expectations, downward revisions on job growth for the two preceding months caused some concern. These downward revisions, coupled with an unexpected rise in the unemployment rate and slower wage growth, spark hope for interest rate reductions from the Federal Reserve come June.
Despite this, investors remained somewhat cautious as they await critical inflation data release which may influence rate outlooks. Oil prices also fell, primarily due to uncertainty around demand forecasts, especially concerning China. This anxiety stems from recent data portraying a reduction in China's oil imports during the first two months of the year, causing futures for West Texas Intermediate Crude oil in April to decrease by $0.92 or 1.2 percent to $78.01 a barrel, amounting to a weekly decline of 2.5 percent in WTI crude futures.
