South Korea Shares May Take Further Damage On Tuesday

(RTTNews) - The South Korea stock market on Monday ended the two-day winning streak in which it had jumped more than 50 points or 2.3 percent. The KOSPI now rests just beneath the 2,440-point plateau and it may see continued selling pressure on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft on renewed concerns over the outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian bourses are expected to open in similar fashion.

The KOSPI finished sharply lower on Monday with damage across the board, especially among the financials, technology stocks and industrials.

For the day, the index tumbled 42.21 points or 1.70 percent to finish at 2,438.19 after trading between 2,438.04 and 2,469.42. Volume was 554 million shares worth 7.54 trillion won. There were 464 decliners and 416 gainers.

Among the actives, Shinhan Financial retreated 1.68 percent, while KB Financial tanked 2.11 percent, Hana Financial declined 1.54 percent, Samsung Electronics crashed 3.45 percent, LG Electronics gained 0.79 percent, SK Hynix plunged 3.36 percent, Naver plummeted 3.58 percent, LG Chem surrendered 2.37 percent, Lotte Chemical added 0.29 percent, S-Oil stumbled 1.27 percent, SK Innovation shed 0.64 percent, POSCO tumbled 1.65 percent, SK Telecom eased 0.22 percent, KEPCO dropped 0.83 percent, Hyundai Mobis slumped 1.44 percent, Hyundai Motor weakened 1.22 percent and Kia Motors sank 0.98 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened lower on Monday and remained in the red throughout the session.

The Dow shed 34.99 points or 0.10 percent to finish at 33,891.02, while the NASDAQ tumbled 119.50 points or 1.00 percent to end at 11,887.45 and the S&P 500 sank 25.40 points or 0.61 percent to close at 4,111.08.

Concerns about the outlook for interest rates continued to weigh on Wall Street following last week's stronger than expected jobs data, which could prompt the Federal Reserve to speed up its pace for interest rate hikes.

Computer hardware stocks were under pressure, as were steel, housing, semiconductor and gold shares.

Oil prices climbed higher Monday on optimism energy demand from China will see a big jump after Saudi Arabia unexpectedly increased the prices of oil to be shipped to Asia. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for March ended higher by $0.72 or 1 percent at $74.11 a barrel.