(RTTNews) – Taiwan’s stock market has soared higher in three straight sessions, gaining nearly 375 points or 2.3 percent along the way. The Taiwan Stock Exchange is now just above the 16,800-point plateau and looks set to open back in the green on Friday.
The global forecast for Asian markets is positive thanks to encouraging economic data. The European and US markets were clearly higher and the Asian markets are expected to follow suit.
The TSE finished sharply higher on Thursday after gains from financial, technology, cement and plastics companies.
For the day, the index rose 226.05 points or 1.36 percent to end at the daily high of 16,807.56, after hitting a low of 16,581.62.
Among active companies, Cathay Financial rose 0.32 percent, while Mega Financial accelerated 2.46 percent, CTBC Financial improved 1.21 percent, First Financial strengthened 1.31 percent, Fubon Financial advanced 0.80 percent advance, E Sun Financial rallied 2.06 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company rose 2.23 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation gained 0.53 percent, Hon Hai Precision gained 0.47 percent, Largan Precision rose 2.73 percent, Catcher Technology climbed 1.11 percent, MediaTek gained 0.14 percent, Delta Electronics rose 1.96 percent, Novatek Microelectronics rose 2.51 percent, Formosa Plastics rose 0.73 percent, Nan Ya Plastics accelerated 1.32 percent, Asia Cement rose 0.63 percent, Taiwan Cement rose 0.57 percent and China Steel rose 0.95 percent.
Wall Street’s lead is positive, as the major averages opened solidly higher on Thursday and remained in the green throughout the trading day.
The Dow Jones rose 331.58 points or 0.96 percent to end at 34,907.11, while the NASDAQ rose 112.47 points or 0.81 percent to end at 13,926.05 and the S&P 500 rose 37.66 points or improved 0.84 percent to close at 4,505.10.
The strength on Wall Street partly reflected a positive reaction to a slew of U.S. economic data, including a Commerce Department report showing that U.S. retail sales rose much more than expected in August.
The Labor Department also said that US producer prices rose more than expected in August. However, the data does not raise concerns about inflation as the price increase was largely due to a spike in energy prices.
Oil prices rose sharply on Thursday as worries about the crude oil outlook outweighed worries about energy demand. West Texas Intermediate crude futures ended October higher by $1.64, or 1.9 percent, at $90.16 a barrel, the highest settlement in nearly a decade.
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