Tech Shares May Weigh On South Korea Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The South Korea stock market headed south again on Friday, one day after halting the two-day slide in which it had plummeted almost 220 points or 5 percent. The KOSPI sits just above the 3,950-point plateau and it's likely to remain stuck in neutral on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to lower on continuing concerns about an artificial intelligence bubble. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourse 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, chemical companies and automobile producers.

For the day, the index stumbled 72.69 points or 1.81 percent to finish at 3,953.76 after trading between 3,887.32 and 4,037.61. Volume was 366.7 million shares worth 18.6 trillion won. There were 677 decliners and 211 gainers.

Among the actives, Shinhan Financial tanked 2.27 percent, while KB Financial declined 1.28 percent, Hana Financial skidded 1.08 percent, Samsung Electronics retreated 1.31 percent, Samsung SDI plummeted 4.97 percent, LG Electronics surrendered 3.71 percent, SK Hynix stumbled 2.19 percent, Naver slumped 1.52 percent, LG Chem dropped 0.91 percent, Lotte Chemical cratered 3.37 percent, SK Innovation crashed 4.06 percent, POSCO Holdings lost 1.97 percent, SK Telecom eased 0.19 percent, KEPCO plunged 4.34 percent, Hyundai Mobis was down 1.53 percent, Hyundai Motor tumbled 1.86 percent and Kia Motors contracted 1.70 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is cloudy as the major averages spent most of Friday under water before a late push salvaged a mixed close.

The Dow added 74.80 points or 0.16 percent to finish at 46,987.10, while the NASDAQ sank 49.46 points or 0.21 percent to close at 23,004.54 and the S&P 500 rose 8.48 points or 0.13 percent to end at 6,728.80.

For the week, the tech-heavy NASDAQ plunged 3.0 percent, while the S&P 500 tumbled 1.7 percent and the Dow slumped 1.2 percent.

The recovery in afternoon trading reflected optimism about an end to the prolonged government shutdown following an offer from top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer - although Republicans turned the offer down later in the day.

Negative sentiment was also generated by a report from the University of Michigan showing consumer sentiment in the U.S. has deteriorated much more than anticipated in November; consumers are now expressing worries about potential negative economic consequences of the shutdown as the stalemate exceeds one month.

Crude oil prices saw modest gains on Friday as a weakening dollar was offset by reports of oversupply and low demand. West Texas Intermediate crude for December delivery was up $0.38 or 0.64 percent at $59.81 per barrel.