Rebound Anticipated For South Korea Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The South Korea stock market on Friday wrote a finish to the four-day winning streak in which it had jumped almost 110 points or 3.6 percent. The KOSPI now sits just above the 3,210-point plateau although it may bounce higher again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat, with technology and financial shares likely to lead the way higher. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets are also expected to tick higher on Monday.

The KOSPI finished modestly lower on Friday following losses from the chemicals and mixed performances from the financial, technology and industrial companies.

For the day, the index shed 17.67 points or 0.55 percent to finish at 3,210.01 after trading between 3,198.31 and 3,227.28. Volume was 334.19 million shares worth 11.2 trillion won. There were 487 decliners and 384 gainers.

Among the actives, KB Financial retreated 1.30 percent, while Hana Financial skidded 1.05 percent, Samsung Electronics jumped 1.84 percent, Samsung SDI added 0.46 percent, LG Electronics fell 0.39 percent, SK Hynix stumbled 2.10 percent, Naver tanked 2.55 percent, LG Chem plummeted 5.47 percent, Lotte Chemical lost 0.48 percent, SK Innovation dropped 0.92 percent, POSCO Holdings shed 0.67 percent, SK Telecom climbed 1.08 percent, KEPCO plummeted 5.36 percent, Hyundai Mobis rose 0.34 percent, Kia Motors perked 0.10 percent and Shinhan Financial and Hyundai Motor were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is firm as the major averages opened higher on Friday and remained well in the green throughout the session, finishing near daily highs.

The Dow climbed 206.97 points or 0.47 percent to finish at 44,175.61, while the NASDAQ jumped 207.32 points or 0.98 percent to close at a record 21,450.02 and the S&P 500 gained 49.45 points or 0.78 percent to end at 6,389.45.

For the week, the NASDAQ rallied 3.9 percent, the S&P 500 surged 2.4 percent and the Dow shot up 1.4 percent.

Wall Street was led higher by the tech sector as shares of Apple (AAPL) showed a substantial move to the upside last week after announcing plans to spend about $600 billion in the U.S. over the next four years.

Computer hardware stocks turned in some of the market's best performances on the day, with the NYSE Arca Computer Hardware Index climbing by 1.4 percent. Significant strength also emerged among banking, oil service, brokerage and networking stocks.

Crude oil posted very slight gains on Friday as uncertainty prevails over the U.S.-Russia conflict over the war with Ukraine, combined with the threat of sanctions on Russian oil exports. West Texas Intermediate crude for September was up $0.03 or 0.05 percent to $63.91 per barrel.