The Taiwan stock market bounced higher again on Friday, one day after ending the two-day winning streak in which it had spiked more than 700 points or 3.5 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just above the 20,120-point plateau and it may add to its winnings pm Monday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is positive on upbeat inflation data and support from the oil and technology companies. The European and U.S. markets were firmly higher and the Asian bourses are expected to open in similar fashion.
The TSE finished sharply higher on Friday following gains from the financial shares and a mixed picture from the technology stocks.
For the day, the index rallied 263.09 point or 1.32 percent to finish at 20,120.51 after trading between 20,087.61 and 20,226.29.
Among the actives, Cathay Financial improved 0.72 percent, while Mega Financial rose 0.26 percent, CTBC Financial collected 0.48 percent, First Financial perked 0.19 percent, Fubon Financial strengthened 1.81 percent, E Sun Financial dipped 0.18 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company jumped 2.09 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation added 0.61 percent, Hon Hai Precision rallied 2.31 percent, Largan Precision shed 0.46 percent, Catcher Technology skidded 1.16 percent, MediaTek spiked 2.45 percent, Delta Electronics soared 2.94 percent, Novatek Microelectronics climbed 1.01 percent, Formosa Plastics was down 0.29 percent, Nan Ya Plastics fell 0.36 percent, Asia Cement gained 0.59 percent, Taiwan Cement lost 0.63 percent and China Steel was unchanged.
The lead from Wall Street is solid as the major averages opened higher on Friday and remained in the green throughout the trading day.
The Dow climbed 153.86 points or 0.40 percent to finish at 38,239.66, while the NASDAQ surged 316.10 points or 2.02 percent to end at 15,927.90 and the S&P 500 rallied 51.54 points or 1.02 percent to close at 5.099.96.
For the week, the NASDAQ spiked 4.2 percent, the S&P 500 jumped 2.7 percent and the Dow added 0.7 percent.
The rally on Wall Street came amid a positive reaction to some of the latest earnings news from big-name tech companies such as Alphabet (GOOGL), software giant Microsoft (MSFT) and Snap (SNAP).
Traders also reacted positively to closely watched readings on inflation released by the Commerce Department showing consumer prices in the U.S. increased in line with estimates in March.
Treasury yields moved lower following the release of the report, which may have helped mitigate any negative response to the data.
Oil prices edged higher on Friday on optimism about the outlook for oil demand and concerns about supply. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for June ended higher by $0.28 or 0.34 percent at $83.85 a barrel. WTI crude futures gained 0.85 percent in the week.
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