The Taiwan stock market has moved lower in three straight sessions, dropping more than 170 points or 1 percent along the way. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just above the 17,075-point plateau although it may stop the bleeding on Wednesday.
The global forecast for the Asian offers little guidance on a lack of catalysts. The European and U.S. markets were mixed and little changed and the Asian bourses are expected to open in similar fashion.
The TSE finished slightly lower on Tuesday as losses from the technology and cement stocks were mitigated by support from the financial sector.
For the day, the index fell 7.70 points or 0.05 percent to finish at 17,076.21 after trading between 17,056.53 and 17,181.52.
Among the actives, Cathay Financial rose 0.18 percent, while Fubon Financial added 0.68 percent, First Financial collected 0.23 percent, E Sun Financial was up 0.19 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company shed 0.51 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation eased 0.19 percent, Largan Precision tanked 2.44 percent, Catcher Technology dropped 0.83 percent, MediaTek sank 0.72 percent, Formosa Plastic tumbled 2.35 percent, Asia Cement fell 0.39 percent, Taiwan Cement was down 0.19 percent and Hon Hai Precision, Mega Financial and CTBC Financial were unchanged.
The lead from Wall Street is unclear as stocks spent Tuesday's session bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line, finally settling mixed and little changed.
The Dow fell 30.42 points or 0.09 percent to finish at 34,599.82, while the NASDAQ gained 43.19 points or 0.31 percent to end at 13,924.91 and the S&P 500 rose 0.74 points or 0.02 percent to close at 4,227.26.
Despite optimism about economic growth amid the vaccine rollout, investors were reluctant to build up positions ahead of upcoming inflation data and concerns the Federal Reserve may start discussions on tapering its asset buying program.
Inflation data for May is due out on Thursday and may provide some cues on policy from the Federal Reserve - which is scheduled to meet next week.
Crude oil futures spiked on Tuesday on hopes that demand will continue to rise following reports that the Pfizer and AstraZeneca Covid vaccines are effective against the Covid Delta variant. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for July ended up by $0.82 or 1.2 percent at $70.05 a barrel, the highest settlement since October 2018.
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