More Pain Predicted For South Korea Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The South Korea stock market headed south again on Thursday, one day after halting the two-day slide in which it had fallen more than 15 points or 0.7 percent. The KOSPI now rests just above the 2,360-point plateau and the losses may accelerate on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is decidedly soft on concerns about the economy and the outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. bourses were sharply lower and the Asian markets are tipped to follow that lead.

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

For the day, the index tumbled 1 38.28 points or 1.60 percent to finish at 2,360.97 after trading between 2,360.95 and 2,392.11. Volume was 366.15 million shares worth 6.03 trillion won. There were 540 decliners and 307 gainers.

Among the actives, Shinhan Financial dropped 0.92 percent, while KB Financial tanked 2.46 percent, Hana Financial plunged 3.47 percent, Samsung Electronics lost 1.98 percent, Samsung SDI slid 0.30 percent, LG Electronics declined 1.33 percent, SK Hynix tumbled 1.96 percent, Naver plummeted 5.68 percent, LG Chem shed 0.46 percent, Lotte Chemical stumbled 3.42 percent, S-Oil perked 0.11 percent, SK Innovation retreated 1.47 percent, POSCO sank 0.87 percent, SK Telecom skidded 1.00 percent, KEPCO rose 0.24 percent, Hyundai Mobis dipped 0.24 percent, Hyundai Motor slumped 0.92 percent and Kia Motors was unchanged.

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

The Dow plummeted 773.26 points or 2.28 percent to finish at 33,193.09, while the NASDAQ plunged 356.54 points or 3.19 percent to close at 10.814.35 and the S&P 500 tumbled 99.45 points or 2.49 percent to end at 3,895.87.

Concerns about the outlook for interest rates continued to weigh on Wall Street after the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement on Wednesday was more hawkish than expected.

A batch of disappointing U.S. economic data also added to concerns the Fed's aggressive interest rate hikes will push the economy into a recession.

Retail sales dropped more than expected last month, as did industrial production. Also, the New York and Philadelphia Federal Reserves showed contractions in regional manufacturing activity in the month of December.

Crude oil futures settled lower on Thursday as concerns about easing supply following a partial restart of the Keystone Pipeline. The dollar's rise on hawkish comments by the Federal Reserve weighed as well on oil prices. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for January ended lower by $1.17 or 1.5 percent at $76.11 a barrel.