South Korea Shares Poised To Halt Losing Streak

(RTTNews) - The South Korea stock market has finished lower in three straight sessions, stumbling more than 160 points or 6.4 percent in that span. The KOSPI now sits just above the 2,480-point plateau although it may stop the bleeding on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is cautiously optimistic, with bargain hunting likely on the menu after heavy selling in the previous sessions. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were mostly higher and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The KOSPI finished sharply lower with damage in all sectors, especially the financial shares, technology stocks and automobile producers.

For the day, the index tumbled 76.86 points or 3.00 percent to finish at 2,481.12 after trading between 2,479.46 and 2,514.22. Volume was 385.5 million shares worth 8.1 trillion won. There were 824 decliners and 87 gainers.

Among the actives, Shinhan Financial dropped 1.57 percent, while KB Financial collected 0.38 percent, Hana Financial tanked 2.77 percent, Samsung Electronics plunged 3.99 percent, Samsung SDI plummeted 5.47 percent, LG Electronics stumbled 3.50 percent, SK Hynix cratered 4.32 percent, Naver declined 1.90 percent, LG Chem tumbled 4.00 percent, Lotte Chemical skidded 3.54 percent, SK Innovation crashed 7.11 percent, POSCO Holdings sank 4.62 percent, SK Telecom dipped 0.36 percent, KEPCO lost 2.04 percent, Hyundai Mobis retreated 2.62 percent, Hyundai Motor surrendered 3.80 percent and Kia Motors slumped 3.15 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is positive as the major averages opened lower on Monday but tracked higher throughout the session to finish mixed.

The Dow jumped 417.86 points or 1.00 percent to finish at 42,001.76, the NASDAQ dipped 23.70 points or 0.14 percent to close at 17,299.29 and the S&P 500 added 30.91 points or 0.55 percent to end at 5,611.85.

The early weakness on Wall Street came amid ongoing concerns about the impact of President Donald Trump's reciprocal tariffs on U.S. trade partners, which are set to begin Wednesday

Traders worry Trump's tariffs and possible retaliatory actions by targeted countries will fuel inflation, keep interest rates elevated and drag down global economic growth.

On the U.S. economic front, MNI Indicators released a report showing an unexpected increase by its reading on Chicago-area business activity in the month of March.

Crude oil prices ticked higher on Monday on concerns that supply may not be able to keep up with demand. West Texas Intermediate for May delivery was up $0.17 or 0.25 percent to $69.53 per barrel.

Closer to home, South Korea will see March figures for imports, exports and trade balance this morning. Imports are expected to rise 2.3 percent on year, up from 0.2 percent in February. Exports are called higher by an annual 3.5 percent, up from 0.7 percent in the previous month. The trade surplus if pegged at $6.10 billion, up from $4.15 billion a month earlier.