South Korea Shares Tipped To Open In The Green

(RTTNews) - The South Korea stock market has moved lower in two of three trading days since the end of the three-day winning streak in which it had risen just 8 points or 0.3 percent. The KOSPI now sits just beneath the 2,715-point plateau although it figures to see renewed support on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is cautiously optimistic following better than expected U.S. employment data. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The KOSPI finished sharply lower on Friday following losses from the financial shares, industrial issues and technology stocks.

For the day, the index sank 27.79 points or 1.01 percent to finish at 2,714.21 after trading between 2,705.31 and 2,730.47. Volume was 615.09 million shares worth 11.16 trillion won. There were 633 decliners and 244 gainers.

Among the actives, Shinhan Financial skidded 1.01 percent, while KB Financial and Lotte Chemical both shed 0.58 percent, Hana Financial dropped 0.86 percent, Samsung Electronics slumped 0.94 percent, Samsung SDI plummeted 4.86 percent, LG Electronics jumped 1.70 percent, SK Hynix tanked 2.77 percent, Naver lost 0.62 percent, LG Chem tumbled 1.81 percent, S-Oil surged 4.77 percent, SK Innovation retreated 1.50 percent, POSCO stumbled 1.74 percent, SK Telecom declined 1.15 percent, KEPCO fell 0.69 percent, Hyundai Mobis slid 0.61 percent, Hyundai Motor eased 0.22 percent and Kia Motors weakened 1.59 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is positive as the major averages opened higher and remained firmly in the green throughout the session.

The Dow jumped 307.06 points or 0.80 percent to finish at 38,904.04, while the NASDAQ rallied 199.42 points or 1.24 percent to end at 16,248.52 and the S&P 500 advanced 57.13 points or 1.11 percent to close at 5,204.34.

For the week, the Dow plunged 2.3 percent, the S&P 500 slumped 1.0 percent and the NASDAQ slid 0.8 percent.

The strength on Wall Street followed the release of the closely watched Labor Department report showing much stronger than expected job growth in March.

While the stronger than expected job growth may have added to recent concerns about the outlook for interest rates, the report also showed a continued slowdown in the annual rate of wage growth.

Oil futures rose on Friday, extending recent gains on supply worries due to geopolitical tensions. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for May added $0.32 or 0.37 percent at $86.91 a barrel, settling at a fresh five-month high. WTI crude futures gained 4 percent in the week.