Little Movement Seen For South Korea Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The South Korea stock market on Tuesday snapped the two-day slide in which it had fallen almost 35 points or 1.4 percent. The KOSPI now sits just beneath the 2,500-point plateau and it's likely to remain in that neighborhood again on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is murky on conflicting signals about the outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets were mixed and little changed and the Asian bourses figure to follow that lead.

The KOSPI finished modestly higher on Tuesday as gains from the technology, chemical and industrial sectors were capped by weakness from the financial shares.

For the day, the index added 7.84 points or 0.31 percent to finish at 2,497.40. Volume was 406.24 million shares worth 8 trillion won. There were 509 gainers and 363 decliners.

Among the actives, Shinhan Financial skidded 1.00 percent, while KB Financial lost 0.56 percent, Hana Financial slumped 1.02 percent, Samsung Electronics shed 0.37 percent, Samsung SDI rallied 3.05 percent, SK Hynix rose 0.36 percent, Naver dropped 0.98 percent, LG Chem strengthened 1.45 percent, Lotte Chemical jumped 1.58 percent, SK Innovation climbed 1.35 percent, POSCO advanced 0.97 percent, SK Telecom sank 0.89 percent, Hyundai Mobis dipped 0.20 percent, Hyundai Motor improved 0.91 percent, Kia Motors gained 1.23 percent and LG Electronics and KEPCO were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street offers little guidance as the major averages opened higher on Tuesday but quickly faded and then hugged the line before ending mixed.

The Dow advanced 221.16 points or 0.52 percent to finish at 42,518.28, while the NASDAQ slumped 43.71 points or 0.23 percent to close at 19.044.39 and the S&P 500 rose 6.69 points or 0.11 percent to end at 5,842.91.

The initial strength on Wall Street came following the release of a Labor Department report showing producer prices rose by slightly less than expected in the month of December.

The smaller than expected monthly increase by producer prices helped ease recent concerns about the outlook for inflation and interest rates, although the faster annual growth kept buying interest somewhat subdued.

Traders may also have been reluctant to make more significant moves ahead of the release of a more closely watched report on consumer price inflation later today.

Oil prices came off five-month highs on Tuesday as investors shifted their focus on the possible impact of Donald Trump's proposed tariffs on imports. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for February closed lower by $1.32 or about 1.67 percent at $77.50 a barrel.

Closer to home, South Korea will release December numbers for unemployment, imports, exports and trade balance later this morning. Imports are expected to rise 3.3 percent on year after slipping 2.4 percent in November. Exports are called higher by an annual 6.6 percent, accelerating from 1.4 percent in the previous month. The trade surplus is pegged at $6.49 billion, up from $5.59 billion a month earlier. The jobless rate in December was 2.7 percent.