Win Streak May Continue For South Korea Shares

(RTTNews) - The South Korea stock market has finished higher in three straight sessions, collecting more than 60 points or 2.4 percent in that span. The KOSPI now sits just above the 2,640-point plateau and it's tipped to open to the upside again on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is murky as uncertainty about U.S. trade policies continues to weigh. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were mostly higher and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The KOSPI finished modestly higher on Wednesday following gains from the financial shares, technology stocks and automobile producers.

For the day, the index jumped 32.15 points or 1.23 percent to finish at 2,640.57. Volume was 386.7 million shares worth 8.76 trillion won. There were 588 gainers and 291 decliners.

Among the actives, KB Financial collected 0.86 percent, while Hana Financial advanced 0.92 percent, Samsung Electronics improved 0.88 percent, Samsung SDI strengthened 1.23 percent, LG Electronics shed 0.68 percent, SK Hynix spiked 3.78 percent, Naver jumped 1.59 percent, LG Chem rose 0.25 percent, Lotte Chemical plummeted 6.48 percent, SK Innovation shed 0.44 percent, POSCO Holdings tanked 2.14 percent, SK Telecom lost 0.58 percent, KEPCO rallied 1.36 percent, Hyundai Mobis added 0.39 percent, Hyundai Motor perked 0.20 percent, Kia Motors slumped 1.39 percent and Shinhan Financial was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is mixed to higher as the major averages opened in the green but spent most of the day bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line before finally ending mixed.

The Dow slumped 89.37 points or 0.21 percent to finish at 42,051.06, while the NASDAQ rallied 136.72 points or 0.72 percent to close at 19,146.81 and the S&P 500 rose 6.03 points or 0.10 percent to end at 5,892.58.

The choppy trading on Wall Street came as traders took a step back to assess the recent rally by the markets, which has seen the S&P 500 rebound strongly from its early April lows to turn positive for 2025.

While trade deals between the U.S. and China and the U.K. have helped ease concerns about President Donald Trump's trade policies, uncertainty about the eventual outcome continues to hang over the markets.

Traders also were reluctant to make more significant moves ahead of the release of a slew of U.S. economic data on Thursday, including producer prices, retail sales and industrial production. A speech by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is also likely to attract attention.

Crude oil prices slipped again on Wednesday, after data showed that U.S. crude inventories unexpectedly jumped last week. West Texas Intermediate crude for June delivery shed 0.80 or 1.27 percent to 62.87 per barrel.

Closer to home, South Korea will provide April data for imports, export and trade balance later this morning. In March, imports were down 2.7 percent on year and exports rose 3.7 percent for a trade surplus of 4.88 billion.