South Korea Shares May Turn Lower Again On Monday

(RTTNews) - The South Korea stock market on Friday ended the two-day slide in which it had slumped almost 30 points or 1.1 percent. The KOSPI now sits just above the 2,625-point plateau although it may hand back those gains on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to lower, with strength from crude oil prices offset by likely profit taking. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The KOSPI finished modestly higher on Friday following gains from the technology stocks, weakness from the oil companies and automobile producers and a mixed bag from the financial sector.

For the day, the index added 17.25 points or 0.66 percent to finish at 2,625.79. Volume was 658.6 million shares worth 12.3 trillion won. There were 598 gainers and 267 decliners.

Among the actives, KB Financial collected 0.21 percent, while Hana Financial eased 0.12 percent, Samsung Electronics added 0.42 percent, LG Electronics improved 0.73 percent, SK Hynix dipped 0.08 percent, Naver climbed 1.00 percent, LG Chem rallied 2.91 percent, Lotte Chemical rose 0.34 percent, S-Oil fell 0.27 percent, SK Innovation retreated 1.41 percent, POSCO jumped 1.81 percent, SK Telecom tumbled 1.87 percent, KEPCO strengthened 1.35 percent, Hyundai Mobis lost 0.67 percent, Hyundai Motor eased 0.15 percent, Kia Motors sank 0.85 percent and Shinhan Financial and Samsung SDI were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street ends up negative as the major averages opened higher on Friday but slumped late to finish in the red.

The Dow shed 108.98 points or 0.32 percent to finish at 34,299.12, while the NASDAQ dropped 93.23 points or 0.68 percent to close at 13,689.57 and the S&P 500 sank 16.25 points or 0.37 percent to end at 4,409.59.

For the week, the NASDAQ spiked 3.3 percent, the S&P 500 jumped2.6 percent and the Dow advanced 1.3 percent.

The late-day weakness on Wall Street reflected profit taking as traders looked to cash in after the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ hit their best closing levels in over a year, while the Dow set a new six-month closing high.

In economic news, inflation expectations edged down to 3.0 percent in June from 3.1 percent in May, again staying within the narrow 2.9-3.1 percent range. The decrease in inflation expectations may add to recent investor optimism that the Federal Reserve won't follow through on its plan to continue raising interest rates.

Crude oil prices climbed higher on Friday amid hopes about higher refinery demand and that further stimulus in China will help boost growth in the world's second largest economy. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures ended higher by $1.16 or 1.6 percent at $71.78 a barrel. WTI crude futures gained 2.3 percent in the week.