Tech Shares May Lift South Korea Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The South Korea stock market on Friday halted the four-day winning streak in which it had surged almost 220 points or 5.5 percent. The KOSPI sits just above the 4,010-point plateau and it may see a technical rebound on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft on concerns over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were mixed and flat and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The KOSPI finished sharply lower on Friday following losses from the financial shares, technology stocks and industrials.

For the day, the index plummeted 159.06 points or 3.81 percent to finish at 4,011.57 after trading between 4,011.40 and 4,092.76. Volume was 396.5 million shares worth 17.9 trillion won. There were 717 decliners and 169 gainers.

Among the actives, Shinhan Financial retreated 1.36 percent, while KB Financial tanked 3.00 percent, Hana Financial contracted 1.87 percent, Samsung Electronics plunged 5.45 percent, Samsung SDI plummeted 5.83 percent, LG Electronics surrendered 2.49 percent, SK Hynix cratered 8.50 percent, Naver stumbled 4.52 percent, LG Chem declined 2.86 percent, Lotte Chemical skidded 2.07 percent, SK Innovation dropped 3.50 percent, POSCO Holdings sank 2.33 percent, SK Telecom fell 0.37 percent, KEPCO crashed 3.76 percent, Hyundai Mobis shed 0.67 percent, Hyundai Motor tumbled 2.15 percent and Kia Motors lost 0.85 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is murky as the major averages opened lower on Friday but hugged the line for most of the day before ending mixed and little changed.

The Dow shed 309.74 points or 0.65 percent to finish t 47,147.48, while the NASDAQ rose 30.23 points or 0.13 percent to close at 22,900.59 and the S&P 500 dipped 3.38 points or 0.05 percent to end at 6,734.11. For the week, the NASDAQ dipped 0.5 percent, the Dow rose 0.3 percent and the S&P perked 0.1 percent.

Weakness among technology stocks continued to weigh on Wall Street early in the session amid lingering valuation concerns. However, gains from tech heavyweights Nvidia (NVDA), Palantir Technologies (PLTR) and Tesla (TSLA) dragged the NASDAQ into the green.

While some traders used the initial slump as an opportunity to pick up stocks at reduced levels, buying interest remained somewhat subdued amid uncertainty about the outlook for interest rates.

Recent comments from Federal Reserve officials and indications that key U.S. economic data may never be released due to the government shutdown have reduced confidence that the central bank will lower interest rates next month.

Crude oil prices rallied on Friday after a Ukrainian drone attack damaged an oil depot in the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk. West Texas Intermediate crude for December delivery was up $1.28 or 2.2 percent at $59.97 a barrel.