Losing Streak May Continue For South Korea Shares

(RTTNews) - The South Korea stock market has finished lower in three straight sessions, sinking almost 70 points or 3 percent along the way. The KOSPI now rests just above the 2,380-point plateau and it may extend its losses again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft on fears for the global economy and concerns over the outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian markets are tipped to open in similar fashion.

The KOSPI finished modestly lower on Friday as losses from the oil, chemical and technology companies were mitigated by support from the financials and automobile producers.

For the day, the index shed 19.05 points or 0.79 percent to finish at 2,382.78 after trading between 2,371.11 and 2,395.10. Volume was 432.5 million shares worth 8.4 trillion won. There were 687 decliners and 193 gainers.

Among the actives, Shinhan Financial rose 0.28 percent, while KB Financial advanced 1.01 percent, Hana Financial collected 0.39 percent, Samsung Electronics added 0.36 percent, Samsung SDI surrendered 2.11 percent, LG Electronics declined 1.52 percent, SK Hynix sank 0.87 percent, Naver slumped 2.44 percent, LG Chem tumbled 3.50 percent, Lotte Chemical lost 0.57 percent, S-Oil plummeted 5.84 percent, SK Innovation plunged 4.05 percent, POSCO retreated 1.91 percent, SK Telecom rallied 2.34 percent, KEPCO tanked 2.33 percent, Hyundai Mobis gained 0.48 percent, Hyundai Motor accelerated 1.52 percent and Kia Motors climbed 1.37 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened firmly lower and stayed that was throughout the session.

The Dow slumped 139.38 points or 0.45 percent to finish at 30,822.42, while the NASDAQ dropped 104.00 points or 0.90 percent to close at 11,448.40 and the S&P 500 fell 28.02 points or 0.72 percent to end at 3,873.33.

For the week, the Dow tumbled 4.1 percent, the S&P 500 plunged 4.8 percent and the NASDAQ plummeted 5.5 percent.

A steep drop by shares of FedEx (FDX) fueled the weakness on Wall Street, with the delivery giant plunging 21.4 percent to a two-year closing low. The sell-off by FedEx came after the company reported weaker than expected preliminary fiscal Q1 results and withdrew its full-year guidance.

Concerns about the outlook for interest rates also continued to weigh on the markets ahead of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy decision this week. The Fed is widely expected to raise interest rates by another 75 basis points, although some see an outside chance for a 100-point rate hike.

Crude oil futures settled roughly flat on Friday following the resumption of oil exports from Iraq's Basra oil terminal, where a spillage had forced disruptions. West Texas Intermediate Crude futures for October settled at $85.11 a barrel, up $0.01 from the previous close. WTI crude futures shed nearly 2 percent in the week.