Mild Upside Seen For South Korea Shares

(RTTNews) - The South Korea stock market on Thursday ended the three-day losing streak in which it had stumbled more than 240 points or 3.5 percent. The KOSPI now sits just beneath the 6,920-point plateau and it may tick higher again on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is flat with a touch of upside ahead of U.S. jobs data later today, while falling treasury yields nudge sentiment barely into the green. The European markets were sharply lower and the U.S. bourses were barely higher and the Asian markets are likely to follow the latter lead.

The KOSPI finished sharply higher on Thursday following gains from the financial shares, technology stocks and plastics companies.

For the day, the index jumped 133.31 points or 1.95 percent to finish at 6,917.35 after trading between 6,765.06 and 6,971.36. Volume was 259.69 million shares worth 16.65 trillion won. There were 541 gainers and 331 decliners.

The lead from Wall Street suggests very mild upside as the major averages opened higher on Thursday but quickly tumbled before recovering midday and hugging the line for the rest of the day.

The Dow rose 20.51 points or 0.04 percent to finish at 50,926.56, while the NASDAQ perked 10.53 points or 0.04 percent to close at 26,871.60 and the S&P 500 was up 14.91 points or 0.19 percent to end at 7,666.45.

The modestly higher close on Wall Street came as treasury yields showed a significant downturn after initially extending their recent upward trend. The yield on the benchmark ten-year note slumped into negative territory after reaching its highest levels since April 2002.

However, traders seemed reluctant to make more significant moves ahead of the release of the Labor Department's closely watched monthly jobs report later today.

Crude oil prices showed another substantial move to the upside on Thursday following reports that Chinese refiners have suspended oil product exports for October. West Texas Intermediate crude for November delivery was up $2.53 or 2.8 percent to $92.95 a barrel.

Closer to home, South Korea will on Friday release September figures for consumer prices later this morning. Inflation is expected to rise 0.4 percent on month and 2.9 percent on year after adding 0.2 percent on month and 3.1 percent on year in August.