Losing Streak May Continue For South Korea Shares

(RTTNews) - The South Korea stock market has moved lower in back-to-back sessions, sinking more than 30 points or 1.3 percent along the way. The KOSPI now rests just beneath the 2,320-point plateau and it's looking at another soft start again on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests consolidation on renewed fears for the economy in the face of a Caovid-19 resurgence. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets are tipped to follow the latter lead.

The KOSPI finished modestly lower on Tuesday following losses from the financial shares, technology stocks and oil and chemical companies.

For the day, the index dropped 22.51 points or 0.96 percent to finish at 2,317.76 after trading between 2,303.74 and 2,333.02. Volume was 374 million shares worth 6.3 trillion won. There were 772 decliners and 129 gainers.

Among the actives, Shinhan Financial lost 0.70 percent, while KB Financial stumbled 1.60 percent, Hana Financial slumped 1.37 percent, Samsung Electronics skidded 1.19 percent, LG Electronics dropped 0.99 percent, SK Hynix shed 0.43 percent, Naver tanked 2.91 percent, LG Chem retreated 1.53 percent, Lotte Chemical cratered 2.89 percent, S-Oil declined 1.30 percent, SK Innovation tumbled 2.08 percent, POSCO plunged 3.04 percent, KEPCO climbed 1.38 percent, Kia Motors advanced 0.90 percent, Hyundai Mobis jumped 1.49 percent and Hyundai Motor and SK Telecom were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened higher on Tuesday, but a late slide pushed them into the red at the close.

The Dow dropped 192.51 points or 0.62 percent to finish at 30,981.51, while the NASDAQ sank 107.87 points or 0.95 percent to end at 11,264.73 and the S&P 500 lost 35.63 points or 0.92 percent to close at 3,818.80.

The late-day weakness on Wall Street came as traders looked ahead to the Labor Department's report on consumer price inflation for June.

Concerns about the emergence of a new, more infectious Covid-19 strain in several parts of the world also continued to weigh.

Investors also seemed to be moving money out of stocks ahead of what some expect to be a difficult quarterly earnings season.

The price of crude oil plummeted on Tuesday on concerns about the outlook for global demand due to recession fears and a renewed spike in Covid-19 cases. West Texas Intermediate for August delivery shed $8.25 or 7.9 percent to $95.84 a barrel, closing below $100 a barrel for the first time in two months.

Closer to home, the Bank of Korea will wrap up its monetary policy meeting this morning and then announce its decision on interest rates. The central bank is expected to hike its benchmark lending rate by 50 basis points, from 1.75 percent to 2.25 percent.