KOSPI May Give Up Support At 2,500 Points

(RTTNews) - The South Korea stock market has alternated between positive and negative finishes through the last four trading days since the end of the three-day losing streak in which it had eased almost 10 points or 0.4 percent. The KOSPI now rests just above the 2,515-point plateau and it may extend its losses on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft on concerns over U.S. tariffs that were put in place over the weekend. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The KOSPI finished modestly lower on Friday following losses from the technology stocks, gains from the financials and automobile producers and a mixed picture from the chemical companies.

For the day, the index sank 19.43 points or 0.77 percent to finish at 2,517.37 after trading between 2,496.95 and 2,537.98. Volume was 443 million shares worth 13.3 trillion won. There were 560 decliners and 333 gainers.

Among the actives, KB Financial rallied 3.15 percent, while Hana Financial and Shinhan Financial both collected 2.20 percent, Samsung Electronics stumbled 2.42 percent, Samsung SDI tumbled 1.99 percent, LG Electronics skidded 1.06 percent, SK Hynix plummeted 9.86 percent, Naver surged 6.13 percent, LG Chem sank 0.84 percent, Lotte Chemical added 0.54 percent, POSCO Holdings and SK Innovation both fell 0.38 percent, SK Telecom climbed 1.09 percent, KEPCO rose 0.24 percent, Hyundai Motor gained 0.49 percent, Kia Motors perked 0.29 percent and Hyundai Mobis was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened higher on Friday and stayed that way for much of the day before a late slide saw them all finish in the red.

The Dow tumbled 337.44 points or 0.75 percent to finish at 44.544.66, while the NASDAQ slumped 54.26 points or 0.28 percent to close at 19,627.44 and the S&P 500 sank 30.64 points or 0.50 percent to end at 6,040.53. For the week, the Dow rose 0.3 percent, the S&P 500 dropped 1.0 percent and the NASDAQ lost 1.6 percent.

Stocks plummeted in afternoon trading after White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed President Donald Trump's threatened tariffs will be levied against major U.S. trading partners beginning the following day.

Leavitt said the Trump administration will be implementing 25 percent tariffs on Mexico and Canada as well as a 10 percent tariff on China.

The news the tariffs will be implemented led to concerns about higher inflation keeping the Federal Reserve on hold for longer.

Oil futures settled lower Friday amid uncertainty about implementation of Trump's tariff plans on Canada and Mexico, while a stronger dollar also weighed. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for March fell $0.20 at $72.53 a barrel.