Steady Start Called For South Korea Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The South Korea stock market has finished lower in two straight sessions, sinking more than 30 points or 1.2 percent along the way. The KOSPI now rests just beneath the 2,545-point plateau although it may find traction on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests mild upside ahead of economic and earnings news coming the week. The European and U.S. markets were slightly higher on Friday and the Asian bourses figure to follow suit.

The KOSPI finished modestly lower on Friday following losses from the oil, chemical and financial sectors, while the industrials and technology companies were mixed.

For the day, the index shed 18.71 points or 0.73 percent to finish at 2,544.40. Volume was 958.5 million shares worth 12.4 trillion won. There were 641 decliners and 244 gainers.

Among the actives, Shinhan Financial eased 0.14 percent, while KB Financial shed 0.60 percent, Hana Financial dropped 0.94 percent, Samsung Electronics added 0.61 percent, Samsung SDI surrendered 2.00 percent, LG Electronics slumped 2.53 percent, SK Hynix jumped 1.60 percent, Naver fell 0.68 percent, LG Chem plummeted 3.62 percent, Lotte Chemical skidded 1.14 percent, S-Oil lost 0.64 percent, SK Innovation tumbled 1.83 percent, POSCO tanked 3.30 percent, SK Telecom perked 0.10 percent, KEPCO improved 0.74 percent, Hyundai Mobis advanced 0.88 percent, Hyundai Motor declined 1.09 percent and Kia Motors sank 0.95 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is cautiously optimistic as the major averages bounced back and forth across the unchanged line on Friday before finally finishing barely higher.

The Dow added 22.36 points or 0.07 percent to finish at 33,808.96, while the NASDAQ perked 12.86 points or 0.11 percent to close at 12,072.46 and the S&P 500 rose 3.73 points or 0.09 percent to end at 4,133.52.

For the week, the S&P 500 eased 0.1 percent, the Dow slipped 0.2 percent and the NASDAQ dipped by 0.4 percent.

The choppy trading on Wall Street came as traders seemed reluctant to make significant moves ahead of several key economic reports and corporate earnings numbers due be released this week.

Crude oil prices climbed higher Friday, buoyed by fairly strong data on private sector activity in the U.K. and eurozone. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for June ended higher by $0.50 or 0.7 percent at $77.87 a barrel. WTI lost 5.5 percent last week.