The Taiwan stock market has finished higher now in four straight trading days, rising more than 250 points or 2.9 percent along the way. The Taiwan Stock Exchange finished just below the 8,990-point plateau, and now analysts are predicting mild and possibly short-lived support at the opening of trade on Wednesday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is broadly positive, although profit taking may take hold later in the trading day following solid gains already this week. Property stocks and technology stocks are expected to provide support. The European and U.S. markets finished sharply higher on Tuesday, and the Asian bourses are tipped to open in similar fashion.
The TSE finished sharply higher on Tuesday following gains from the food, technology, financial, construction and paper sectors.
For the day, the index surged 165.16 points or 1.87 percent to finish at 8,988.84 after trading between 8,860.58 and 9,003.60 on turnover of 131.27 billion Taiwan dollars.
Among the gainers, Largan jumped 4.55 percent, while HTC spiked 4.27 percent, AsusTek climbed 3.45 percent, Uni-President added 3.0 percent and Nan Ya Plastics collected 3.10 percent.
The lead from Wall Street is optimistic as stocks were strong on Tuesday following the long, holiday weekend, fueled by optimism about further financial assistance for Greece - which has been struggling to deal with its massive debt burden.
However, buying interest was partly offset by some weaker than expected U.S. economic data, including a report from the Conference Board showing an unexpected drop in consumer confidence in May. The Conference Board said its consumer confidence index fell to 60.8 in May from an upwardly revised 66.0 in April. The decrease came as a surprise to economists, who had expected the index to rise to 66.5 from the 65.4 in the previous month.
A separate report from the Institute for Supply Management - Chicago showed a substantial slowdown in the pace of growth by Chicago-area business activity. The ISM Chicago said its business barometer dropped to 56.6 in May from 67.6 in April, although a reading above 50 continues to indicate growth. Economists had been expecting a more modest decrease to a reading of 63.0.
Among individual stocks, shares of Ashland Inc. (ASH) surged 12 percent after the specialty chemical company said it has agreed to acquire privately owned International Specialty Products Inc. for approximately $3.2 billion in cash. Ashland said ISP's advanced product portfolio would expand its position in high-growth markets such as personal care, pharmaceutical and energy.
Meanwhile, shares of Nokia (NOK) fell by 14.4 percent after the cell phone maker warned of weaker than previously expected second quarter sales. With the loss, Nokia ended the session at its lowest closing level in thirteen years.
After failing to sustain an initial upward move, the major averages gave back some ground in morning trading before bouncing back to the upside in the afternoon. The Dow rose 128.21 points or 1 percent to 12,569.79, the NASDAQ jumped 38.44 points or 1.4 percent to 2,835.30 and the S&P 500 advanced 14.10 points or 1.1 percent to 1,345.20.
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June 12, 2026 17:14 ET Major central bank action was the focus this week in economic news. The European Central Bank became the first major central bank to move in response to the rising inflationary pressures in the backdrop of the conflict in the Middle East. In North America, the U.S. inflation and trade data as well as Canada’s central bank decision gained attention. The Chinese trade data was the main news in Asia.