South Korea Shares May Find Traction On Wednesday

(RTTNews) - The South Korea stock market has moved lower in back-to-back sessions, sinking almost 30 points or 1.2 percent along the way. The KOSPI market now rests just above the 2,575-point plateau although it may stop the bleeding on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests mild upside, supported by bargain hunting and crude oil prices. The European and U.S. markets were modestly higher and the Asian markets figure to open in similar fashion.

The KOSPI finished modestly lower on Tuesday following losses from the industrials and mixed performances from the financials and technology tocks.

For the day, the index shed 15.11 points or 0.58 percent to finish at 2,576.20 after trading between 2,563.87 and 2,599.18. Volume was 404.4 million shares worth 10.1 trillion won. There were 613 decliners and 265 gainers.

Among the actives, Shinhan Financial retreated 1.29 percent, while KB Financial collected 0.64 percent, Hana Financial stumbled 1.63 percent, Samsung Electronics rose 0.13 percent, Samsung SDI tanked 3.36 percent, LG Electronics lost 0.51 percent, SK Hynix rallied 4.31 percent, Naver declined 1.20 percent, LG Chem dropped 0.96 percent, Lotte Chemical gained 0.30 percent, S-Oil sank 0.86 percent, SK Innovation plunged 4.96 percent, POSCO tumbled 2.13 percent, SK Telecom added 0.20 percent, KEPCO advanced 0.99 percent, Hyundai Mobis surrendered 5.18 percent, Hyundai Motor skidded 1.05 percent and Kia Motors plummeted 5.66 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is cautiously optimistic as the major averages opened higher but also spent much of the day in the red before a late rally nudged them all back into positive territory.

The Dow climbed 141.24 points or 0.37 percent to finish at 38,521.36, while the NASDAQ rose 11.32 points or 0.07 percent to close at 15,609.00 and the S&P 500 added 11.42 points or 0.23 percent to end at 4,954.23.

The choppy trading on Wall Street came as some traders seemed reluctant to make significant moves amid uncertainty about the near-term outlook for the markets after recent volatility.

While the major averages climbed well off Monday's early lows, fading optimism the Fed will lower interest rates in March continued to hang over the markets.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell has said the central bank is unlikely to cut rates in March and the chances of a rate cut next month have fallen to just 19.5 percent, according to CME Group's FedWatch Tool.

Crude oil prices climbed higher on Tuesday, extending gains from the previous session after the Energy Information Administration's said oil inventories may drop by 0.8 million barrels per day in the current quarter. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for March ended higher by $0.53 or 0.73 percent at $73.31 a barrel.

Closer to home, South Korea will provide December data for its current account later this morning; in November, the current account surplus was $4.06 billion.