Ahead of Monday's holiday for the Dragon Boat Festival, the Taiwan stock market had moved higher in two straight sessions, advancing almost 250 points or 1.5 percent along the way. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just above the 17,210-point plateau although investors may cash in on Tuesday.
The global forecast for the Asian is murky ahead the FOMC decision and statement later this week. 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 modestly higher on Friday following mixed performances from the financial shares and technology stock.
For the day, the index rose 54.32 points or 0.32 percent to finish at 17,213.52 after trading between 17,193.61 and 17,278.55.
Among the actives, Cathay Financial shed 0.37 percent, while Mega Financial lost 0.60 percent, First Financial collected 0.45 percent, E Sun Financial dipped 0.19 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company added 0.50 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation gained 0.58 percent, Hon Hai Precision rallied 2.71 percent, Largan Precision fell 0.33 percent, Catcher Technology rose 0.28 percent, MediaTek tumbled 1.80 percent, Formosa Plastic retreated 1.90 percent, Asia Cement was up 0.20 percent, Taiwan Cement was down 0.19 percent and CTBC Financial and Fubon Financial were unchanged.
The lead from Wall Street is mixed as the major averages opened Monday on opposite sides of the unchanged line and finished the same way.
The Dow shed 85.85 points or 0.25 percent to finish at 34,393.75, while the NASDAQ climbed 104.72 points or 0.74 percent to end at 14,174.14 and the S&P 500 rose 7.71 points or 0.18 percent to close at 4,255.15.
The mixed performance on Wall Street came as traders look ahead to the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement on Wednesday.
The Fed is widely expected to leave its monetary policy unchanged, but traders will be looking for any clues the central bank is considering tapering its asset purchases.
Last week's Labor Department report showed consumer price inflation reached the highest level in nearly thirteen years last month, although Fed officials have repeatedly downplayed the risks of prolonged inflation.
Crude oil futures ended slightly lower Monday on news that the next phase of England's lockdown reopening will be delayed due to a surge of the Delta variant of Covid-19. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for July ended down by $0.03 or 0.04 percent at $70.88 a barrel.
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