Overbought KOSPI Tipped To Open In The Green

(RTTNews) - The South Korea stock market has finished higher in seven straight sessions, rallying almost 150 points or 5.7 percent along the way. The KOSPI now sits just above the 2,670-point plateau and it's expected too at least open higher on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets murky on an uncertain outlook for interest rates. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were slightly up and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The KOSPI finished sharply higher on Wednesday following gains from the financial shares, technology stocks, chemical companies and industrials.

For the day, the index spiked 44.71 points or 1.70 percent to finish at 2,671.52. Volume was 519.07 million shares worth 14.68 trillion won. There were 573 gainers and 303 decliners.

Among the actives, KB Financial perked 0.12 percent, while Hana Financial collected 1.47 percent, Samsung Electronics spiked 3.16 percent, Samsung SDI rallied 3.91 percent, LG Electronics jumped 2.26 percent, SK Hynix soared 4.05 percent, Naver dipped 0.22 percent, LG Chem improved 2.72 percent, Lotte Chemical surged 4.87 percent, SK Innovation rose 0.25 percent, POSCO Holdings strengthened 4.02 percent, Samsung Heavy skyrocketed 13.92 percent, SK Telecom advanced 3.04 percent, KEPCO was up 0.24 percent, Hyundai Mobis gained 3.02 percent, Hyundai Motor accelerated 1.75 percent, Kia Motors climbed 1.17 percent and Shinhan Financial was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is positive as the major averages opened lower on Wednesday but trended upward throughout the day, finally ending mildly to the upside.

The Dow gained 71.25 points or 0.16 percent to finish at 44,627.59, while the NASDAQ rose 14.99 points or 0.07 percent to close at 20,056.25 and the S&P 500 perked 14.57 points or 0.24 percent to end at 6,144.15.

The rebound also came even though the minutes of the latest Federal Reserve meeting revealed that officials want to see further progress on inflation before they consider resuming lowering interest rates.

In economic news, the Commerce Department said housing starts pulled back by more than expected in January.

Oil futures settled higher Wednesday, extending gains from previous session amid concerns about the outlook for supplies after a recent drone attack by Ukraine on a Russian pumping station. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for March rose $0.40 or 0.56 percent at $72.25 a barrel.

Closer to home, producer prices in South Korea were up 0.6 percent on month in January, the Bank of Korea said this morning - accelerating from 0.4 percent in December. On a yearly basis, producer prices were steady at 1.7 percent.