(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market on Friday wrote a finish to the two-day slide in which it had stumbled almost 450 points or 2.8 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just above the 15,830-point plateau and it's likely to see additional support on Monday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat, with bargain hunting expected - especially among the oil and technology stocks. The European and U.S. bourses were sharply higher and the Asian markets are tipped to open in similar fashion.
The TSE finished sharply higher on Friday following gains from the technology and cement companies, while the financials and plastics were mixed.
For the day, the index climbed 215.84 points or 1.38 percent to finish at 15,832.54 after trading between 15,687.15 and 15,860.69.
Among the actives, Cathay Financial collected 0.37 percent, while Mega Financial dipped 0.14 percent, CTBC Financial dropped 0.96 percent, Fubon Financial rose 0.32 percent, First Financial added 0.39 percent, E Sun Financial eased 0.17 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company climbed 1.19 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation rallied 2.20 percent, Hon Hai Precision and Taiwan Cement both jumped 1.96 percent, Largan Precision advanced 0.94 percent, Catcher Technology strengthened 1.35 percent, MediaTek accelerated 2.80 percent, Delta Electronics improved 1.14 percent, Novatek Microelectronics spiked 2.70 percent, Formosa Plastic was up 1.99 percent, Nan Ya Plastics fell 0.12 percent and Asia Cement gained 1.46 percent.
The lead from Wall Street is broadly positive as the major averages opened Friday solidly higher and picked up steam as the day progressed, ending solidly in the green.
The Dow jumped 466.36 points or 1.47 percent to finish at 32,196.66, while the NASDAQ spiked 434.00 points or 3.82 percent to end at 11,805.00 and the S&P 500 advanced 93.81 points or 2.39 percent to close at 4,023.89. For the week, the NASDAQ plunged 2.8 percent, the S&P sank 2.4 percent and the Dow dropped 2.1 percent.
The rally on Wall Street came as traders went bargain hunting following the sharp decline shown by the markets over the past month.
While recent bargain hunting efforts have largely been thwarted by worries about the Federal Reserve aggressively raising interest rates in an effort to combat elevated inflation, traders seemed to shrug off those concerns.
In economic news, the University of Michigan said consumer sentiment deteriorated more than expected in May. Also, the Labor Department said import prices were unchanged in of April.
Crude oil prices rose sharply Friday, lifting the most active crude futures contracts on fears of supply shortage. West Texas International Crude oil futures for June ended higher by $4.36 or 4.1 percent at $110.49 a barrel.
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