KOSPI May Crack Resistance At 2,500 Points On Monday

(RTTNews) - The South Korea stock market has moved higher in four straight sessions, improving more than 130 points or 5.5 percent along the way. The KOSPI now sits just above the 2,490-point plateau and it's expected to extend its gains again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests little movement ahead of the FOMC meeting later this week. The European and U.S. markets mostly saw slight weakness and the Asian markets figure to follow that lead.

The outlook for South Korea is a bit more positive following Saturday's vote to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol - hopefully lending some clarity to the country's political situation.

The KOSPI finished modestly higher on Friday as gains from the technology tocks and automobile producers were capped by weakness from the financial sector.

For the day, the index added 12.34 points or 0.50 percent to finish at 2,494.46. Volume was 569 million shares worth 8.73 trillion won. There were 632 gainers and 253 decliners.

Among the actives, Shinhan Financial stumbled 2.17 percent, while KB Financial tanked 2.30 percent, Hana Financial shed 0.50 percent, Samsung Electronics rose 0.36 percent, Samsung SDI rallied 1.30 percent, LG Electronics added 0.57 percent, SK Hynix fell 0.34 percent, Naver advanced 0.96 percent, LG Chem increased 0.37 percent, Lotte Chemical plunged 3.23 percent, SK Innovation jumped 1.65 percent, POSCO Holdings retreated 1.28 percent, SK Telecom strengthened 1.59 percent, KEPCO climbed 0.95 percent, Hyundai Mobis slumped 1.01 percent, Hyundai Motor accelerated 1.65 percent and Kia Motors gained 0.93 percent.

The lead from Wall Street suggests mild downside as the major averages opened higher on Friday but quickly slipped under water and largely stayed that way, although the NASDAQ broke back into positive territory later in the day.

The Dow shed 86.04 points or 0.20 percent to finish at 43,828.06, while the NASDAQ rose 23.92 points or 0.12 percent to close at 19,926.72 and the S&P 500 eased 0.16 points or 0.00 percent to end at 6,051.09.

For the week, the NASDAQ rose 0.3 percent, the S&P 500 slid 0.6 percent and the narrower Dow tumbled 1.8 percent.

The early strength on Wall Street partly reflected a positive reaction to earnings news from Broadcom (AVGO), which reported better than expected fiscal fourth quarter earnings and said it expects continued strong demand for its custom AI chips.

Buying interest waned shortly after the start of trading, however, as traders looked ahead to this week's Federal Reserve meeting. The Fed is widely expected to lower interest rates by another 25 basis points, although traders are likely to pay close attention to the accompanying statement for clues about future rate cuts.

Oil futures settled higher on Friday as supply worries resurfaced following additional sanctions on Iran and Russia. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for January closed up $1.27 or about 1.8 percent at $71.29 a barrel.

Closer to home, South Korea will provide November numbers for imports, exports and trade balance later this morning; in October, imports were down 2.4 percent on year and exports rose an annual 1.4 percent for a trade surplus of $5.61 billion.