Little Movement Expected For South Korea Shares

(RTTNews) - The South Korea stock market has moved higher in back-to-back sessions, advancing more than 55 points or 2 percent in that span. The KOSPI now sits just above the 2,765-point plateau and it's likely to hold steady in that neighborhood on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is a holding pattern ahead of Wednesday's FOMC rate decision and announcement. The European and U.S. markets ended mixed and flat and the Asian bourses are likely to follow suit.

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

For the day, the index climbed 33.63 points or 1.23 percent to finish at 2,765.53. Volume was 449.64 million shares worth 10.78 trillion won. There were 634 gainers and 244 decliners.

Among the actives, Shinhan Financial surged 4.46 percent, while KB Financial soared 3.30 percent, Hana Financial and Lotte Chemical both sank 0.79 percent, Samsung Electronics gained 0.37 percent, Samsung SDI improved 0.71 percent, LG Electronics tanked 2.15 percent, SK Hynix strengthened 1.98 percent, Naver perked 0.11 percent, LG Chem was up 0.33 percent, S-Oil spiked 3.16 percent, SK Innovation rose 0.19 percent, POSCO jumped 1.82 percent, KEPCO added 0.51 percent, Hyundai Mobis climbed 1.11 percent, Hyundai Motor accelerated 4.93 percent, Kia Motors rallied 1.43 percent and SK Telecom was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street offers little clarity as the major averages opened mixed on Monday and hugged the line for most of the day, finally ending mixed and little changed.

The Dow shed 49.41 points or 0.12 percent to finish at 40,539.93, while the NASDAQ added 12.32 points or 0.07 percent to close at 17,370.20 and the S&P 500 rose 4.44 points or 0.08 percent to end at 5,463.54.

The choppy trading on Wall Street came as traders seemed reluctant to make significant moves ahead of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy meeting this week.

While the Fed is widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged, traders will be looking to the accompanying statement for additional clues about a possible rate cut in September.

Investors are also waiting for corporate earnings this week from companies that include Microsoft (MSFT), Meta Platforms (META), Apple (AAPL) and Amazon (AMZN).

Crude oil prices fell to a seven-week low on Monday amid concerns about the outlook for demand from China, and ahead of Thursday's OPEC meeting. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for September ended down $1.35 or 1.8 percent at $75.81 a barrel.