South Korea Shares Poised To Return To The Upside

(RTTNews) - Ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday, the South Korea stock market had moved higher in two of three 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 2,535-point plateau and it's tipped to open in the green on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat, with support expected from oil, gold and technology stocks. The European and U.S. markets were up on Thursday and the Asian bourses are expected to follow that lead.

The KOSPI finished modestly higher on Friday following mixed performances from the financial, technology, chemical and automobile companies.

For the day, the index gained 21.31 points or 0.85 percent to finish at 2,536.80 after trading between 2,522.64 and 2,542.83. Volume was 576.9 million shares worth 9.83 trillion won. There were 542 gainers and 321 decliners.

Among the actives, Shinhan Financial shed 0.60 percent, while KB Financial collected 0.34 percent, Hana Financial perked 0.17 percent, Samsung SDI tanked 2.58 percent, LG Electronics improved 0.71 percent, SK Hynix added 0.68 percent, Naver slid 0.24 percent, LG Chem lost 0.42 percent, Lotte Chemical rose 0.35 percent, SK Innovation sank 0.75 percent, POSCO Holdings improved 0.77 percent, SK Telecom dipped 0.18 percent, KEPCO advanced 0.96 percent, Hyundai Mobis surged 4.56 percent, Hyundai Motor tumbled 1.91 percent, Kia Motors dropped 0.97 percent and Samsung Electronics was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is positive as the major averages opened higher on Thursday, dipped into the red a few times but all ended above the unchanged line.

The Dow jumped 168.61 points or 0.38 percent to finish at 44,882.13, while the NASDAQ added 49.43 points or 0.25 percent to close at 19,681.75 and the S&P 500 gained 31.86 points or 0.53 percent to end at 6,071.17.

The major averages moved sharply lower late in the session after President Donald Trump said he would follow through on his threat to impose 25 percent tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico on February 1.

However, the major averages rebounded going into the close, reflecting the significant volatility from earnings news throughout the session.

Companies such as IBM Corp. (IBM) and Meta Platforms (META) posted quarterly results that beat expectations, while Microsoft (MSFT) and UPS (UPS) has decent earnings but provided disappointing guidance.

Oil futures settled marginally higher on Thursday on a likely drop in supplies amid a potential tariff on Canadian and Mexican goods, while a weaker dollar also provided support. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for March rose $0.11 or 0.15 percent at $72.73 a barrel.