South Korea Shares May End Losing Streak

(RTTNews) - The South Korea stock market has finished lower in eight straight sessions, slumping almost 150 points or 5.6 percent along the way. The KOSPI now sits just above the 2,525-point plateau although it may finally stop the bleeding on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests little movement and uncertainty thanks to the ongoing hostilities in the Middle East. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were mixed and little changed and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The KOSPI finished modestly lower on Friday following losses from the technology stocks and industrials, while the financial sector was mixed.

For the day, the index shed 15.22 points or 0.60 percent to finish at 2,525.05 after trading between 2,517.76 and 2,543.83. Volume was 772.4 million shares worth 8.18 trillion won. There were 620 decliners and 269 gainers.

Among the actives, Shinhan Financial stumbled 1.48 percent, while Hana Financial collected 0.48 percent, Samsung Electronics eased 0.14 percent, Samsung SDI surrendered 2.04 percent, LG Electronics slid 0.32 percent, SK Hynix retreated 1.40 percent, Naver fell 0.43 percent, LG Chem plunged 2.29 percent, Lotte Chemical tanked 2,24 percent, S-Oil gained 0.30 percent, SK Innovation slumped 1.66 percent, POSCO lost 0.66 percent, SK Telecom added 0.51 percent, KEPCO rose 0.16 percent, Hyundai Mobis sank 0.69 percent, Hyundai Motor shed 0.53 percent, Kia Motors tumbled 1.56 percent and KB Financial was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is of little help as the major averages opened slightly higher on Friday but then hugged both sides of the line for the rest of the session, ending mixed and little changed.

The Dow sank 118.04 points or 0.31 percent to finish at 37,592.98, while the NASDAQ rose 2.58 points or 0.02 percent to close at 14,972.76 and the S&P 500 perked 3.59 points or 0.08 percent to end at 4,783.83. For the week, the NASDAQ spiked 3.1 percent, the S&P added 1.8 percent and the Dow rose 0.3 percent.

The Dow was weighed by earnings news from the likes of UnitedHealth (UNH), Bank of America (BAC), Wells Fargo (WFC) and JPMorgan Chase (JPM).

Traders were also reacting to a Labor Department report showing U.S. producer prices unexpectedly edged lower in December, adding to recent uncertainty about the outlook for interest rates.

Oil futures settled notably higher on Friday as an escalation in tensions in the Middle East raised concerns about delay in supplies. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for February ended higher by $0.66 or 0.9 percent at $72.68 a barrel. For the week, the contract shed about 1.1 percent.

Closer to home, South Korea will release December figures for imports, exports and trade balance later this morning. In November, imports were down 10.8 percent on year and exports rose an annual 5.1 percent for a trade surplus of $4.48 billion.