Taiwan Stocks Draw Flat Lead On Friday

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market has moved to the upside now in three consecutive trading days, gathering nearly 90 points or 1 percent in that span. The Taiwan Stock Exchange closed just below the 8,945-point plateau, and now the market figures to remain in that neighborhood again on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed with a touch of upside thanks to inconclusive earnings news and economic data. The European markets were modestly higher and the U.S. bourses were mixed by little changed. Many of the Asian markets are closed for the Easter break, and the ones that remain open figure to see little movement.

The TSE finished slightly higher on Thursday as gains from the financial shares were capped by a mixed picture from the technology sector.

For the day, the index collected 20.34 points or 0.22 percent to finish at 8,944.16 after trading between 8,921.56 and 8,962.66 on turnover of 94.93 billion Taiwan dollars.

Among the actives, Hon Hai added 0.46 percent, Catcher spiked 2.80 percent, Cathay Financial Holding collected 0.46 percent and Mega Financial Holding gained 0.42 percent, while Taiwan Life Insurance plummeted by the 7 percent daily limit and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company tumbled 0.83 percent.

The lead from Wall Street offers little guidance as stocks showed a lack of direction on Thursday. The major averages spent the session bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line before ending the day mixed as traders seemed reluctant to make any significant move ahead of the long weekend.

The Dow eased 16.31 points or 0.1 percent to 16,408.54, while the NASDAQ crept up 9.29 points or 0.2 percent to 4,095.52 and the S&P 500 inched up 2.54 points or 0.1 percent to 1,864.85. For the week, the S&P 500 surged by 2.7 percent, while the Dow and the NASDAQ both jumped 2.4 percent.

A mixed reaction to the latest batch of earnings news contributed to the lackluster performance by the broader markets. While Morgan Stanley (MS) and General Electric (GE) moved notably higher after reporting their quarterly results, Google (GOOG) and IBM (IBM) saw significant weakness.

Some positive sentiment was generated by news that officials from the U.S., Russia, Ukraine and the European Union have reached an agreement on a preliminary plan for ending the ongoing crisis in Ukraine.

Meanwhile, largely shrugged off economic data, including a report from the Labor Department showing a smaller than expected increase in weekly jobless claims. A separate report from the Philadelphia Federal Reserve showed that regional manufacturing activity accelerated by more than anticipated in April.

Closer to home, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company reported first-quarter income before tax of NT$53.30 billion, compared to NT$45.75 billion, previous year. Net income increased to NT$47.87 billion from NT$39.58 billion. Earnings per share was NT$1.85, compared to NT$1.53, a year ago. Net sales increased to NT$148.22 billion from NT$132.76 billion.