Mild Upside Tipped For South Korea Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The South Korea stock market on Friday ended the four-day winning streak in which it had advanced more than 35 points or 1.4 percent. The KOSPI now sits just shy of the 2,500-point plateau although it may inch higher again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is cautiously optimistic on positive momentum regarding the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were mixed and little changed and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

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

For the day, the index sank 18.33 points or 0.73 percent to finish at 2,496.63. Volume was 352.2 million shares worth 6.38 trillion won. There were 452 gainers and 413 decliners.

Among the actives, Shinhan Financial shed 0.54 percent, while KB Financial skidded 1.10 percent, Hana Financial slumped 1.30 percent, Samsung Electronics stumbled 0.97 percent, Samsung SDI plunged 2.53 percent, LG Electronics retreated 1.04 percent, SK Hynix declined 1.61 percent, LG Chem dropped 0.96 percent, Lotte Chemical eased 0.06 percent, S-Oil was up 0.14 percent, SK Innovation sank 0.84 percent, POSCO lost 0.54 percent, SK Telecom fell 0.38 percent, KEPCO rose 0.21 percent, Hyundai Mobis was down 0.21 percent, Hyundai Motor slid 0.43 percent, Kia Motors dipped 0.36 percent and Naver was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street varies widely as the Dow opened higher on Friday and stayed that way, the NASDAQ opened lower and stayed that way and the S&P bounced back and forth across the line all day and finished barely higher.

The Dow gained 117.15 points or 0.33 percent to finish at 35,390.15, while the NASDAQ dipped 15.05 points or 0.11 percent to close at 14,250.85 and the S&P 500 perked 2.72 points or 0.06 percent to end at 4,559.34.

For the holiday-interrupted week, the Dow rose 1.3 percent, while the S&P 500 advanced 1.0 percent and the NASDAQ climbed 0.9 percent.

The choppy action on Wall Street came as many traders remained away from their desks following Thursday's holiday, with the markets closing three hours earlier than usual.

A lack of major U.S. economic data also kept some traders on the sidelines ahead of this week's reports on new home sales, consumer confidence, pending home sales and manufacturing activity.

Oil prices fell sharply Friday, with traders waiting on a crucial OPEC meeting this week as oil producers struggling to come to a consensus on production levels. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for January ended lower by $1.56 or 2 percent at $75.54 a barrel.