(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market has finished lower in three straight sessions, falling almost 320 points or 1.8 percent along the way. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just beneath the 17,600-point plateau and it's likely to open under pressure again on Wednesday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft on interest rate and COVID-19 concerns, with oil and technology stocks again expected to lead the way lower. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian markets figure to follow suit.
The TSE finished modestly lower on Tuesday following losses from the financial shares, technology stocks and cement companies.
For the day, the index dropped 168.23 points or 0.95 percent to finish at 17,599.37 after trading between 17,566.99 and 17,754.38.
Among the actives, Cathay Financial sank 0.82 percent, while Mega Financial dipped 0.28 percent, CTBC Financial skidded 1.16 percent, Fubon Financial dropped 1.06 percent, First Financial declined 0.83 percent, E Sun Financial was down 0.36 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company fell 0.33 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation shed 0.64 percent, Largan Precision spiked 2.76 percent, MediaTek lost 0.47 percent, Delta Electronics slid 0.37 percent, Formosa Plastic perked 0.49 percent, Asia Cement rose 0.12 percent, Taiwan Cement retreated 0.21 percent and Hon Hai Precision and Catcher Technology were unchanged.
The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages spent most of the day in the red, although they finished off session lows.
The Dow skidded 106.77 points or 0.30 percent to finish at 35,544.18, while the NASDAQ tumbled 175.64 points or 1.14 percent to end at 15,237.64 and the S&P 500 sank 34.88 points or 0.75 percent to close at 4,634.09.
Concerns about the outlook for monetary policy continued to weigh on the markets as the Federal Reserve's two-day meeting got underway. With inflation remaining at an elevated rate, the Fed is widely expected to accelerate its timetable for reducing bond purchases.
Potentially adding to concerns about monetary policy, the Labor Department released a report showing producer prices increased by more than expected in November.
Lingering worries about the new Omicron variant of the coronavirus may also have generated some selling pressure after the World Health Organization warned the new variant is spreading faster than previous strains.
Crude oil futures dipped Tuesday on concerns about the outlook for energy demand due to renewed restrictions amid rising new cases of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for January ended down by $0.56 or 0.8 percent at $70.73 a barrel.
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