No Help Yet For South Korea Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The South Korea stock market has finished lower in three straight sessions, sinking almost 80 points or 3.3percent along the way. The KOSPI now rests just above the 2,290-point plateau and it's tipped to open in the red again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft on continuing recession fears. The European and U.S. markets were sharply lower on Friday and now the Asian markets are tipped to open in similar fashion.

The KOSPI finished sharply lower on Friday following losses from the oil, chemical and automobile companies, while the financials were up and the technology shares were mixed.

For the day, the index stumbled 42.31 points or 1.81 percent to finish at 2,290 after trading between 2,285.71 and 2,334.06. Volume was 438.3 million shares worth 7.3 trillion won. There were 796 decliners and 110 gainers.

Among the actives, Shinhan Financial soared 2.50 percent, while KB Financial collected 0.71 percent, Hana Financial surged 2.62 percent, Samsung Electronics perked 0.18 percent, Samsung SDI plunged 3.02 percent, LG Electronics shed 0.47 percent, SK Hynix tumbled 2.91 percent, Naver jumped 1.94 percent, LG Chem lost 3.51 percent, Lotte Chemical declined 1.76 percent, S-Oil cratered 3.44 percent, SK Innovation plummeted 6.27 percent, POSCO rose 0.21 percent, SK Telecom rallied 2.53 percent, KEPCO tanked 2.71 percent, Hyundai Mobis slumped 1.43 percent, Hyundai Motor retreated 1.55 percent and Kia Motors surrendered 2.02 percent.

The lead from Wall Street continues to be negative as the major averages opened sharply lower on Friday and stayed that way throughout the session.

The Dow plunged 486.29 points or 1.62 percent to finish at 29,590.41, while the NASDAQ tumbled 198.87 points or 1.80 percent to close at 10.867.93 and the S&P 500 sank 64.76 points or 1.72 percent to end at 3,693.23. For the week, the Dow dropped 4.0 percent, the NASDAQ plunged 5.1 percent and the S&P fell 4.7 percent.

Concerns about the outlook for the global economy continued to weigh on Wall Street after aggressive interest rate hikes by central banks around the world. Traders remain concerned the central banks' efforts to combat elevated inflation will push the global economy into a recession.

The Federal Reserve raised interest rates by another 75 basis points earlier this week and signaled more significant rate hikes later this year.

While the Fed's projections pointed to an eventually tapering of rate hikes by next year, traders worry about the outlook for the global economy in the months ahead.

Crude oil prices fell sharply on Friday, pushing the most active crude futures contract to their lowest close in about seven months. Weak outlook for energy demand due to a possible global recession outweighed concerns about tight supplies. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for November ended lower by $4.75 or 5.7 percent at $78.74 a barrel, the lowest settlement since January.