Additional Support Anticipated For South Korea Shares

(RTTNews) - The South Korea stock market on Wednesday ended the three-day losing streak in which it had eased almost 10 points or 0.4 percent. The KOSPI now rests just beneath the 2,550-point plateau and it may open to the upside again on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat, with technology shares expected to fuel the rally. The European and U.S. markets were up and the Asian bourses are expected to open in similar fashion.

The KOSPI finished sharply higher on Wednesday following gains from the financial shares, technology stocks and automobile producers.

For the day, the index climbed 29.03 points or 1.15 percent to finish at 2,547.06. Volume was 570.7 million shares worth 10.8 trillion won. There were 479 decliners and 402 gainers.

Among the actives, Shinhan Financial added 0.50 percent, while KB Financial collected 0.56 percent, Hana Financial improved 1.21 percent, Samsung Electronics strengthened 1.50 percent, Samsung SDI perked 0.07 percent, LG Electronics rallied 2.49 percent, SK Hynix spiked 3.44 percent, Naver fell 0.24 percent, LG Chem accelerated 2.29 percent, Lotte Chemical gained 0.68 percent, SK Innovation soared 2.82 percent, POSCO Holdings climbed 2.33 percent, SK Telecom sank 0.73 percent, KEPCO dropped 0.94 percent, Hyundai Mobis increased 1.20 percent, Hyundai Motor advanced 0.97 percent and Kia Motors jumped 1.98 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is positive as the major averages opened higher and spent all day in the green, ending near session highs.

The Dow jumped 130.92 points or 0.30 percent to finish at 44,156.73, while the NASDAQ surged 252.56 points or 1.28 percent to close at 20,009.34 and the S&P 500 added 37.13 points or 0.61 percent to end at 6,086.37.

The strength on Wall Street came as investors reacted positively to upbeat earnings updates and corporate news, and on continued optimism about rate cuts by the Federal Reserve this year.

The tech-heavy NASDAQ was fueled by buoyant earnings and sales guidance by Netflix, as well as President Donald Trump's announcement of a $500 billion private-sector AI infrastructure investment plan involving Oracle, Open AI and Softbank.

Oil prices drifted lower on Wednesday, extending recent weakness on concerns about excess supply in the market due to the Trump administration's plan to maximize oil and gas production. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for March fell $0.39 or 0.5 percent at $75.44 a barrel, extending losses to a fifth straight session.

Closer to home, South Korea will on Thursday release preliminary Q4 numbers for gross domestic product later this morning. GDP is expected to rise 0.2 percent on quarter and 1.4 percent on year after adding 0.1 percent on quarter and 1.5 percent on year in Q3.