South Korea Shares May Remain Stuck In Neutral

(RTTNews) - The South Korea stock market on Monday wrote a finish to the two-day winning streak in which it had accelerated more than 65 points or 2.6 percent. The KOSPI now rests just beneath the 2,575-point plateau and it's expected to see little movement on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed and flat ahead of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement later this week. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were barely higher and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The KOSPI finished sharply lower on Monday following losses from the financial shares, technology and chemical stocks and automobile producers.

For the day, the index slumped 26.56 points or 1.02 percent to finish at 2,574.72. Volume was 408.4 million shares worth 8.6 trillion won. There were 548 decliners and 330 gainers.

Among the actives, Shinhan Financial sank 0.79 percent, while KB Financial eased 0.17 percent, Hana Financial dipped 0.23 percent, Samsung Electronics surrendered 2.50 percent, Samsung SDI tumbled 2.41 percent, LG Electronics retreated 1.86 percent, SK Hynix tumbled 2.78 percent, Naver plunged 3.49 percent, Lotte Chemical stumbled 1.90 percent, S-Oil lost 0.62 percent, SK Innovation soared 3.13 percent, POSCO surged 3.25 percent, SK Telecom added 0.60 percent, KEPCO shed 0.61 percent, Hyundai Mobis slumped 1.26 percent, Hyundai Motor declined 0.62 percent, Kia Motors dropped 0.87 percent and LG Chem was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street offers little guidance as the major averages opened lower on Monday, bounced higher to spend most of the day in the green but faded late to end barely above the unchanged line.

The Dow added 6.06 points or 0.02 percent to finish at 34,624.30, while the NASDAQ rose 1.90 points or 0.01 percent to close at 13,710.24 and the S&P 500 perked 3.21 points or 0.07 percent to end at 4,453.53.

The choppy trading on Wall Street came as traders seemed reluctant to make significant moves ahead of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement on Wednesday.

The Fed is widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged, but traders will pay close attention to the accompanying statement and the central bank's projections for clues about the outlook for rates.

On the U.S. economic front, the National Association of Home Builders released a report showing homebuilder confidence in the U.S. has unexpectedly deteriorated in September.

Oil futures settled higher on Monday, rising for a third straight session on global supply issues and a weaker dollar. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for October rose $0.71 or 0.8 percent at $91.48 a barrel, the highest settlement this year.