The Taiwan stock market on Friday wrote a finish to the two-day winning streak in which it had picked up almost 90 points or 0.8 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now rests just above the 11,125-point plateau and it may take further damage on Monday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is broadly negative over concerns for the outlook on interest rates. The European and U.S. markets were sharply lower on Friday and the Asian markets figure to follow that lead.
The TSE finished modestly lower on Friday following losses from the financial and chemical stocks, while the technology shares came in mixed.
For the day, the index dropped 34.02 points or 0.30 percent to finish at 11,126.23 after trading between 11,070.43 and 11,153.32 on turnover of 119.61 billion Taiwan dollars.
Among the actives, Cathay Financial lost 0.18 percent, while Fubon Financial dropped 1.11 percent, Mega Financial fell 0.39 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company was unchanged, Largan Precision plunged 2.45 percent, MediaTek shed 0.81 percent, Advanced Semiconductor Engineering spiked 2.58 percent, Hon Hai Precision jumped 1.82 percent, Catcher Technology surged 6.00 percent and Formosa Plastics tumbled 2.91 percent.
The lead from Wall Street is brutal as stocks moved sharply lower on Friday as traders worried about the prospect of higher interest rates - extending the pullback last week's record highs.
The Dow tumbled 665.75 points or 2.54 percent to 25,520.96, the NASDAQ slumped 144.92 points or 1.96 percent to 7,240.95 and the S&P 500 fell 59.85 points or 2.12 percent to 2,762.13. For the week, the Dow lost 4.1 percent, the NASDAQ shed 3.5 percent and the S&P plunged 3.9 percent.
The concerns about higher interest rates came after the Labor Department reported stronger than expected job growth and a jump in wages. The Federal Reserve may respond to strong economic growth by hiking interest rates three times in 2018.
A negative reaction to quarterly results from big name tech companies like Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL) and Apple (AAPL) also contributed to the selloff.
Crude oil also responded negatively to the jobs report as WTI for March delivery fell 35 cents to $65.45 per barrel.
by RTT Staff Writer
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