Losing Streak May Continue For South Korea Shares

(RTTNews) - Ahead of Tuesday's holiday for Armed Forces Day, the South Korea stock market had finished lower in two straight sessions, stumbling almost 80 points or 3 percent along the way. The KOSPI now sits just above the 2,590-point plateau and it may extend its losses on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft on rising geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The KOSPI finished sharply lower on Monday following losses from the financial shares, technology stocks and industrials.

For the day, the index retreated 56.51 points or 2.13 percent to finish at the daily low of 2,593.27 after moving as high as 2,668.66. Volume was 352.4 million shares worth 10.5 trillion won. There were 708 decliners and 181 gainers.

Among the actives, Shinhan Financial skidded 1.25 percent, while KB Financial stumbled 3.46 percent, Hana Financial surrendered 3.13 percent, Samsung Electronics plunged 4.21 percent, Samsung SDI retreated 1.43 percent, LG Electronics tumbled 2.07 percent, SK Hynix plummeted 5.01 percent, Naver shed 0.59 percent, LG Chem dipped 0.28 percent, Lotte Chemical eased 0.10 percent, SK Innovation declined 1.35 percent, POSCO fell 0.39 percent, SK Telecom slumped 1.24 percent, KEPCO dropped 1.20 percent, Hyundai Mobis sank 1.81 percent, Hyundai Motor tanked 4.13 percent and Kia Motors crashed 4.68 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened lower on Tuesday and remained in the red throughout the session.

The Dow dropped 173.18 points or 0.41 percent to finish at 42,156.97, while the NASDAQ plummeted 278.81 points or 1.53 percent to close at 17,910.36 and the S&P sank 53.73 points or 0.93 percent to end at 5,708.75.

The weakness on Wall Street came on rising tensions in the Middle East after Iran launched a ballistic missile attack against Israel. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said the attack was in response to the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and others in recent Israeli airstrikes.

A senior White House official said earlier in the day that the U.S. had indications Iran was preparing to imminently launch a ballistic missile attack against Israel, contributing to the early sell-off by stocks.

The news from the Middle East largely overshadowed separate report showing a continued contraction by U.S. manufacturing activity in September and an unexpected increase by U.S. job openings in August.

Oil prices moved higher on Tuesday amid the possibility of tight supplies due to an escalation in tensions in the Middle East after Iran launched a missile attack on Israel. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for November closed up $1.66 or nearly 2.5 percent at $69.83 a barrel.