Lower Open Predicted For Taiwan Stock Market

The Taiwan stock market has finished lower in three straight sessions, sinking more than 420 points or 3 percent along the way. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now rests just beneath the 14,120-point plateau and it's tipped to open under pressure again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft on continuing recession fears. The European and U.S. markets were sharply lower on Friday and now the Asian markets are tipped to open in similar fashion.

The TSE finished sharply lower on Friday following losses from the technology and cement companies, while the financials and plastics were mixed.

For the day, the index slumped 166.22 points or 1.16 percent to finish at 14,118.38 after trading between 14,109.71 and 14,277.53.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial climbed 1.08 percent, while Mega Financial gained 0.74 percent, CTBC Financial rose 0.23 percent, Fubon Financial dropped 1.10 percent, First Financial collected 0.57 percent, E Sun Financial eased 0.19 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company tanked 2.05 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation skidded 1.16 percent, Hon Hai Precision shed 0.47 percent, Largan Precision sank 0.79 percent, Catcher Technology rose 0.29 percent, MediaTek tumbled 1.86 percent, Delta Electronics declined 1.30 percent, Novatek Microelectronics retreated 1.67 percent, Formosa Plastics perked 0.81 percent, Nan Ya Plastics strengthened 1.05 percent, Asia Cement plunged 3.42 percent and Taiwan Cement surrendered 1.46 percent.

The lead from Wall Street continues to be negative as the major averages opened sharply lower on Friday and stayed that way throughout the session.

The Dow plunged 486.29 points or 1.62 percent to finish at 29,590.41, while the NASDAQ tumbled 198.87 points or 1.80 percent to close at 10.867.93 and the S&P 500 sank 64.76 points or 1.72 percent to end at 3,693.23. For the week, the Dow dropped 4.0 percent, the NASDAQ plunged 5.1 percent and the S&P fell 4.7 percent.

Concerns about the outlook for the global economy continued to weigh on Wall Street after aggressive interest rate hikes by central banks around the world. Traders remain concerned the central banks' efforts to combat elevated inflation will push the global economy into a recession.

The Federal Reserve raised interest rates by another 75 basis points earlier this week and signaled more significant rate hikes later this year.

While the Fed's projections pointed to an eventually tapering of rate hikes by next year, traders worry about the outlook for the global economy in the months ahead.

Crude oil prices fell sharply on Friday, pushing the most active crude futures contract to their lowest close in about seven months. Weak outlook for energy demand due to a possible global recession outweighed concerns about tight supplies. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for November ended lower by $4.75 or 5.7 percent at $78.74 a barrel, the lowest settlement since January.

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