South Korea Bourse May Run Out Of Steam

(RTTNews) - The South Korea stock market has moved higher in two straight sessions, collecting almost 70 points or 2.6 percent along the way. The KOSPI now sits just above the 2,745-point plateau although the rally may stall on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is uninspired thanks to uncertainty over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were slightly higher and the U.S. bourses were mixed and flat and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The KOSPI finished modestly higher on Wednesday following gains from the financial shares and energy companies, while the technology and industrial sectors were mixed.

For the day, the index added 10.69 points or 0.39 percent to finish at the daily high of 2,745.05 after moving as low as 2,727.93. Volume was 424.75 million shares worth 10.09 trillion won. There were 575 gainers and 280 decliners.

Among the actives, Shinhan Financial rallied 2.27 percent, while KB Financial surged 5.14 percent, Hana Financial soared 4.30 percent, Samsung SDI added 0.46 percent, LG Electronics was up 0.11 percent, SK Hynix dropped 0.89 percent, Naver tumbled 2.00 percent, Lotte Chemical strengthened 1.47 percent, S-Oil perked 0.14 percent, SK Innovation improved 0.71 percent, POSCO sank 0.74 percent, KEPCO retreated 1.60 percent, Hyundai Mobis jumped 1.53 percent, Kia Motors rose 0.26 percent and SK Telecom, LG Chem, Hyundai Motor and Samsung Electronics were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street offers little clarity as the major averages opened lower but ultimately wound up mixed and little changed.

The Dow added 172.13 points or 0.44 percent to finish at 39,056.39, while the NASDAQ sank 29.80 points or 0.18 percent to close at 16,302.76 and the S&P 500 eased 0.03 points or 0.00 percent to end at 5,187.67.

The choppy trading on Wall Street came amid lingering uncertainty about the outlook for interest rates following Tuesday's remarks by Minneapolis Federal Reserve President Neel Kashkari.

Kashkari suggested interest rates may need to remain at current levels for an extended period and said he couldn't rule out another rate increase.

The Federal Reserve is still widely expected to lower rates sometime in the third quarter, however, with CME Group's FedWatch Tool currently indicating an 83.5 percent chance rates will be lower by September.

Oil futures settled higher on Wednesday after data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed crude inventories rose last week. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for June ended higher by $0.61 or 0.78 percent at $78.99 per barrel.