The Taiwan stock market has ventured higher in two of three trading days since the end of the four-day losing streak in which it had tumbled almost 850 points or 3.6 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now rests just beneath the 22,850-point plateau and it may see additional support on Wednesday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to higher, with support again expected from the oil and technology sectors. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were mostly higher and the Asian markets are tipped to follow the latter lead.
The TSE finished sharply higher on Tuesday following gains from the financial shares and technology stocks, while the plastics companies were soft.
For the day, the index jumped 302.26 points or 1.34 percent to finish at 22,848.80 after trading between 22,578.75 and 22,906.69.
Among the actives, Cathay Financial climbed 1.04 percent, while Mega Financial collected 0.63 percent, First Financial improved 1.08 percent, Fubon Financial jumped 1.78 percent, E Sun Financial eased 0.18 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company strengthened 1.46 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation perked 0.22 percent, Hon Hai Precision added 0.49 percent, Largan Precision rallied 1.71 percent, Catcher Technology increased 0.74 percent, MediaTek soared 3.63 percent, Delta Electronics gathered 0.39 percent, Novatek Microelectronics slumped 1.22 percent, Formosa Plastics tanked 2.66 percent, Nan Ya Plastics retreated 1.43 percent, Asia Cement plunged 2.76 percent and CTBC Financial was unchanged.
The lead from Wall Street is cautiously optimistic after the major averages opened lower on Tuesday, although the NASDAQ and S&P 500 managed to finish in the green.
The Dow slumped 120.66 points or 0.28 percent to finish at 43,268.94, while the NASDAQ rallied 195.66 points or 1.04 percent to close at 18.987.47 and the S&P added 23.36 points or 0.40 percent to end at 5,916.98.
The early weakness on Wall Street came amid concerns about escalating tensions between the U.S. and Russia over the war in Ukraine.
After President Joe Biden gave Ukraine permission to attack Russian territory using U.S.-made long-range missiles, Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree amending the country's nuclear doctrine.
Selling pressure waned shortly after the start of trading, however, with an advance by shares of Nvidia (NVDA) helping lead the turnaround by the NASDAQ. Nvidia will release Q3 results later today.
Oil futures settled higher on Tuesday amid the rising possibility of supply disruptions after Ukraine launched long-range U.S. made missiles to hit a facility in Russia's Bryansk region. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for December rose $0.23 or about 0.3 percent at $69.39 a barrel.
Closer to home, Taiwan will see October figures for export orders later today, as well as Q3 data for current account. In September, export orders were up 4.6 percent on year. In Q2, the current account surplus was $21.82 billion.
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