Mild Rebound Tipped For South Korea Shares

(RTTNews) - The South Korea stock market has alternated between positive and negative finishes through the last six trading days since the end of the two-day losing streak in which it had slipped almost 20 points or 0.8 percent. The KOSPI now sits just beneath the 2,495-point plateau and it's likely to remain rangebound again on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets offers little clarity ahead of key U.S. employment data later this week. The European and U.S. markets were mixed and little changed and the Asian bourses figure to follow suit.

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

For the day, the index shed 20.67 points or 0.82 percent to finish at 2,494.28 after trading between 2,492.55 and 2,509.74. Volume was 416.4 million shares worth 8.1 trillion won. There were 515 decliners and 357 gainers.

Among the actives, Shinhan Financial dipped 0.14 percent, while Hana Financial slid 0.24 percent, Samsung Electronics tumbled 1.93 percent, Samsung SDI climbed 1.02 percent, LG Electronics was down 0.49 percent, SK Hynix plummeted 3,97 percent, Naver rallied 1.19 percent, LG Chem shed 0.42 percent, Lotte Chemical surged 3.26 percent, S-Oil dropped 1.01 percent, SK Innovation sank 0.44 percent, POSCO plunged 3.05 percent, SK Telecom lost 0.59 percent, KEPCO rose 0.21 percent, Hyundai Mobis dipped 0.22 percent, Hyundai Motor eased 0.11 percent and Kia Motors and KB Financial were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is again inconsistent as the major averages opened lower on Tuesday. The NASDAQ quickly broke into the green and ended positive, but the Dow and S&P stayed in the red.

The Dow shed 79.88 points or 0.22 percent to finish at 36,124.56, while the NASDAQ gained 44.42 points or 0.31 percent to close at 14,229.91 and the S&P 500 fell 2.60 points or 0.06 percent to end at 4,567.18.

The initial weakness on Wall Street came as traders continued to cash in on recent strength in the markets amid concerns optimism about the outlook for interest rates has led to overbought conditions.

While the Federal Reserve is widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged in the coming months, traders may need more evidence to solidify hopes of a rate cut in the near future.

The subsequent rebound came as a Labor Department report may have reinforced those hopes, showing a bigger than expected decrease in U.S. job openings in October.

Oil prices dropped on Tuesday for a fourth straight session, on lingering concerns about the outlook for demand and on disappointment over the small size of additional output cuts announced by OPEC. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for January ended down $0.72 or 1 percent at $72.32 a barrel.