Mild Upside Seen For South Korea Shares

(RTTNews) - The South Korea stock market has moved higher in two straight sessions, although it has picked up just 2 points or 0.1 percent in that span. The KOSPI now sits just shy of the 2,750-point plateau and it may inch slightly higher again on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets offers little clarity with the outlook for interest rates shrouded in uncertainty. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were mixed and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The KOSPI finished slightly higher again on Monday following gains from the technology stocks, weakness from the financials and industrials and a mixed picture from the chemical companies.

For the day, the index perked 1.23 points or 0.04 percent to finish at 2,747.86. Volume was 391.77 million shares worth 9.9 trillion won. There were 573 gainers and 295 decliners.

Among the actives, Shinhan Financial dropped 0.98 percent, while KB Financial retreated 1.58 percent, Hana Financial tanked 2.25 percent, Samsung Electronics shed 0.49 percent, Samsung SDI plunged 3.61 percent, LG Electronics rallied 1.47 percent, SK Hynix strengthened 1.37 percent, Naver soared 3.68 percent, LG Chem stumbled 2.36 percent, Lotte Chemical surged 4.36 percent, S-Oil lost 0.64 percent, SK Innovation improved 0.74 percent, POSCO sank 0.95 percent, SK Telecom fell 0.57 percent, KEPCO added 0.45 percent, Hyundai Mobis declined 1.57 percent, Hyundai Motor slumped 2.36 percent and Kia Motors skidded 1.36 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is murky as the major averages opened slightly higher on Monday but spent most of the day in the red, although the NASDAQ ticked back up into the green by the session's end.

The Dow slumped 240.52 points or 0.60 percent to finish at 39,566.85, while the NASDAQ added 17.37 points or 0.11 percent to close at 16,396.83 and the S&P 500 fell 10.58 points or 0.20 percent to end at 5,243.77.

The early strength on Wall Street came as traders finally had an opportunity to react to last Friday's closely watched U.S. consumer price inflation data, which largely matched expectations.

Buying interest remained somewhat subdued, however, as traders expressed uncertainty about whether inflation is slowing quickly enough to guarantee the interest rate cuts expected by the Federal Reserve.

The subsequent pullback by stocks came as a report from the Institute for Supply Management unexpectedly showing modest growth in U.S. manufacturing activity in March contributed to a jump by Treasury yields.

Oil prices moved higher Monday amid concerns about a possible drop in supplies following reports of an Israeli strike near the Iranian embassy in Damascus. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for May ended higher by $0.54 or 0.65 percent at $83.71 a barrel.