KOSPI May Give Up Support At 2,600 Points

(RTTNews) - The South Korea stock market has moved lower in two straight sessions, sinking almost 25 points or 0.9 percent along the way. The KOSPI now sits just above the 2,630-point plateau and it's expected to open in the red again on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is negative, with weakness expected from the technology and oil companies. The European and U.S. markets were mostly lower and the Asian bourses figure to follow that lead.

The KOSPI finished modestly lower on Tuesday following losses from the financial shares, technology stocks, chemical companies and industrials.

For the day, the index lost 14.98 points or 0.57 percent to finish at 2,630.29 after trading between 2,617.12 and 2,641.49. Volume was 420.7 million shares worth 10.3 trillion won. There were 527 decliners and 358 gainers.

Among the actives, Shinhan Financial tumbled 1.80 percent, while KB Financial sank 0.73 percent, Hana Financial dropped 0.80 percent, Samsung Electronics dipped 0.17 percent, Samsung SDI plummeted 4.25 percent, LG Electronics declined 1.32 percent, SK Hynix stumbled 2.20 percent, Naver rose 0.22 percent, LG Chem cratered 5.10 percent, Lotte Chemical crashed 4.22 percent, SK Innovation plunged 3.81 percent, POSCO Holdings surrendered 2.31 percent, SK Telecom slumped 0.85 percent, KEPCO surged 4.08 percent, Hyundai Mobis fell 0.58 percent, Hyundai Motor tanked 2.17 percent and Kia Motors retreated 1.79 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is mostly soft as the major averages opened mixed on Tuesday and finished in similar fashion.

The Dow gained 159.95 points or 0.37 percent to finish at 43,621.16, while the NASDAQ plummeted 260.54 points or 1.35 percent to close at 19,026.39 and the S&P 500 sank 28.00 points or 0.47 percent to end at 5,955.25.

Significant weakness among technology stocks weighed on Wall Street, as reflected the notable slump by the tech-heavy NASDAQ.

Traders continued to express concerns about the sustainability of the artificial intelligence trade ahead of the release of AI darling Nvidia's (NVDA) fourth quarter results on Wednesday.

The selling pressure also spurred concerns about the outlook for the economy after a Conference Board report showing a significant deterioration by U.S. consumer confidence in February.

Oil futures settled sharply lower on Tuesday as concerns about demand and oversupply in the market weighed and pushed the commodity's prices to the lowest level in about 11 weeks. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for April settled lower by $1.77 or at $68.93 a barrel.