The Taiwan stock market on Tuesday halted the two-day slide in which it had given away almost 90 points or 1.3 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange closed just above the 7,500-point plateau, and now traders may be tempted to lock in gains when the market kicks off trade on Wednesday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed with a touch of upside as Spain saw a steep decline in borrowing costs at an auction on Tuesday amid speculation that the European Central Bank would resume its purchase of peripheral bonds. Further, markets are hopeful that a series of bilateral meetings between key Eurozone leaders may produce a lasting solution to the region's prolonged sovereign debt crisis. The European markets were higher and the U.S. bourses were down - and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.
The TSE finished sharply higher on Tuesday following gains from the technology, finance, food, plastic, chemical, textile and paper stocks.
For the day, the index jumped 74.90 points or 1.01 percent to finish at 7,506.81 after trading between 7,459.50 and 7,536.32 on turnover of 77.61 billion Taiwan dollars. There were 2,565 gainers and 1,674 decliners, with 453 finishing unchanged.
Among the actives, Hon Hai Precision Industry jumped 1.3 percent, while Foxconn Technology climbed 1.8 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. spiked 1.5 percent, Acer Inc. shed 2.61 percent and HTC Corp. collected 1.04 percent.
The lead from Wall Street is negative as stocks turned lower on Tuesday after failing to sustain an early upward move. The downturn came as some traders cashed in on the recent strength in the markets, although selling pressure remained relatively subdued.
The early strength followed optimism about the financial situation in Europe amid reports that the European Central Bank is considering buying bonds from troubled eurozone countries such as Italy and Spain in order to reduce borrowing costs.
Optimism about potential progress on addressing the Greek debt crisis also generated some buying interest, with Eurogroup chief Jean-Claude Juncker due to meet with Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras in Athens on Wednesday.
Nonetheless, the markets were unable to sustain the early upward move, as traders seemed somewhat reluctant to continue buying stocks following recent strength.
A lack of major U.S. economic data also contributed to the lack of follow-through and some traders subsequently looked to cash in on the early gains, which lifted the S&P 500 to its highest intraday level in over four years.
Among individual stocks, shares of Best Buy ended the day in the red after the consumer electronic retailer reported second quarter earnings that fell by much more than anticipated. Bookstore operator Barnes & Noble also moved lower despite reporting a much narrower than expected first quarter loss. On the other hand, Urban Outfitters moved higher after the apparel retailer reported better than expected second quarter results.
The major U.S. averages ended the day firmly in negative territory but off their worst levels of the day as the Dow fell 68.06 points or 0.5 percent to finish at 13,203.58, while the NASDAQ slipped 8.95 points or 0.3 percent to end at 3,067.26 and the S&P 500 dropped 4.96 points or 0.4 percent to close at 1,413.17.
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