The nation's stock market -- the No. 1 performer in Asia -- was expected to rebound today after shedding over 100 points in the past week, thanks in part to recent gains in US indexes and the success of a massive pan-blue alliance election rally, traders and analysts said yesterday.
After almost a week of heavy selling, US stocks rose Friday, led by technology issues such as Dell and Intel.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 1.1 percent and the tech-laden NASDAQ Composite Index advanced 2.1 percent.
A huge nationwide protest on Saturday against President Chen Shui-bian (
Analysts said many institutional investors prefer Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)Chairman Lien Chan (
Rex Lin, vice president of equities at ING Financial Markets in Taipei, said Saturday's event should give Lien some valuable momentum in the presidential election.
"If there's a [stock market] rebound on Monday, it's people buying in because they think Lien Chan is going to win," Lin said.
Derek Lam, head of trading at Fubon Securities agreed.
"Saturday's super rally should help sentiment," he said.
Lam expects the index to test 6,900 today, after losing 143.44 points in the past week to end at 6,800.24 on Friday. It has risen 15 percent since the beginning of the year.
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