The Taiwan stock market has finished higher in three straight sessions, rising more than 840 points or 9 percent along the way. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now rests just beneath the 9,740-point plateau and it's looking at another green light for Friday's trade.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat on the expectation of massive stimulus relief for the coronavirus pandemic. The European and U.S. markets were up and the Asian bourses figure to follow suit.
The TSE finished modestly higher on Thursday following gains from the technology stocks, weakness from the cement companies and a mixed picture from the financial sector.
For the day, the index advanced 91.61 points or 0.95 percent to finish at 9,736.36 after trading between 9,565.02 and 9,739.73.
Among the actives, Cathay Financial eased 0.14 percent, while Mega Financial collected 0.72 percent, CTBC Financial skidded 1.14 percent, Fubon Financial gained 0.54 percent, First Financial dipped 0.26 percent, E Sun Financial lost 0.41 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company climbed 1.08 percent, Hon Hai Precision shed 0.56 percent, Largan Precision accelerated 2.70 percent, Catcher Technology added 0.77 percent, MediaTek spiked 2.69 percent, Asia Cement sank 1.02 percent, Taiwan Cement dropped 0.52 percent and United Microelectronics Corporation and Formosa Chemical were unchanged.
The lead from Wall Street is broadly positive as stocks opened higher on Thursday and extended gains as the session progressed.
The Dow surged 1,351.62 points or 6.38 percent to finish at 22,552.17, while the NASDAQ added 413.24 points or 5.60 percent to 7,797.54 and the S&P 500 jumped 154.51 points or 6.24 percent to 2,630.07.
The rally on Wall Street came even though the Labor Department reported that first-time claims for unemployment benefits soared last week, as large swaths of the U.S. economy were shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Any negative sentiment also seems to have been offset by last night's news that the Senate finally voted to approve a massive $2 trillion stimulus package in response to the coronavirus pandemic. The Republican Senate passed the bill unanimously and it now moves to the House, which is expected to pass the legislation later today and send it on to President Trump.
Crude oil prices declined sharply and closed lower for the first time in four sessions as concerns about outlook for energy demand weighed on the commodity. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for May ended down $1.89 or 7.7 percent at $22.60 a barrel.
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