The Taiwan stock market has closed higher in consecutive trading days, climbing more than 180 points or 2.1 percent in the process. The Taiwan Stock Exchange finished just shy of the 8,470-point plateau, and now analysts are projecting further upside for the market when it opens on Tuesday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is broadly positive on easing radiation fears from Japan. Oil and gold stocks are rising on UN airstrikes in Libya, while technology stocks also may provide support - although weakness from the financials may weigh. The European and U.S. markets finished sharply higher on Monday, and the Asian markets are also expected to track to the upside.
The TSE finished modestly higher on Monday riding gains from the plastics, textile, financial, paper and technology sectors.
For the day, the index collected 72.96 points or 0.87 percent to finish at 8,467.71 after trading between 8,394.22 and 8,508.20 on turnover of 97.544 billion Taiwan dollars. There were 2,547 gainers and 1,715 decliners, with 498 stocks finishing unchanged.
The lead from Wall Street is firmly optimistic as stocks turned in a strong performance on Monday, continuing to recovery from the sell-off that was seen early last week. The markets benefited from news on the merger-and-acquisition front as well as easing concerns about the nuclear crisis in Japan.
The strength in the markets was partly due to M&A news, including AT&T's (T) announcement that it has agreed to acquire T-Mobile USA from Deutsche Telekom for $39 billion in cash and stock. The purchase price will include a cash payment of $25 billion, with the balance to be paid using AT&T common stock, subject to adjustment.
In other news on the M&A front, Charles Schwab (SCHW) announced a deal to acquire online brokerage services provider optionsXpress Holdings, Inc. (OXPS) for about $1 billion. Under the terms of the deal, optionsXpress shareholders will receive 1.02 shares of Schwab stock for each optionsXpress share. Based on Schwab's closing stock price on Friday, the transaction values each optionsXpress share at $17.91.
The markets have also benefited from easing concerns about the nuclear crisis in Japan, as officials said progress is being made on efforts to restore power and cooling systems at the earthquake-crippled Fukushima nuclear plant.
The news on the economic front was not as encouraging, however, with a report from the National Association of Realtors showing that existing home sales fell by much more than anticipated in February. NAR said existing home sales fell 9.6 percent to an annual rate of 4.88 million in February from an upwardly revised 5.40 million in January. Economists had expected sales to drop to 5.15 million from the 5.36 million originally reported for the previous month.
The situation in Libya was also in focus, with news that coalition forces have launched air strikes against the regime of longtime Libyan leader Moammar Qadhafi contributing to a significant increase by the price of crude oil.
After showing a notable move in early trading, the major averages moved roughly sideways for the remainder of the day. The Dow closed up 178.01 points or 1.5 percent at 12,036.53, the NASDAQ jumped 48.42 points or 1.8 percent to 2,692.09 and the S&P 500 rose 19.18 points or 1.5 percent to 1,1298.38.
In economic news, Taiwan will on Tuesday provide the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for February, with analysts expecting the rate to come in at 4.7 percent - easing marginally from 4.71 percent in January.
Also, Taiwan export orders grew at a significantly slower pace in February, data released by the Ministry of Economic Affairs said on Monday. Export orders, expressed in U.S. Dollars, increased just 5.33 percent, following a 13.47 percent gain in the previous month. Economists were looking for a 12.9 percent increase. The pace of order growth eased for the second consecutive month. Month-on-month, orders declined 16.21 percent in February.
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