No Help Yet For South Korea Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The South Korea stock market has moved lower in five straight sessions, tumbling more than 85 points or 3.7 percent along the way. The KOSPI now rests just beneath the 2,575-point plateau and it's tipped to open under pressure again on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is cautious ahead of key inflation data coming later this week. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian markets are expected to open in similar fashion.

The KOSPI finished slightly lower on Tuesday as losses from the financials, technology stocks and oil companies were mitigated by support from the industrial issues.

For the day, the index slipped 6.73 points or 0.26 percent to finish at 2,573.98. Volume was 631.5 million shares worth 12.3 trillion won. There were 643 decliners and 250 gainers.

Among the actives, Shinhan Financial collected 0.28 percent, while KB Financial climbed 1.17 percent, Hana Financial slid 0.26 percent, Samsung Electronics retreated 1.31 percent, Samsung SDI lost 0.49 percent, LG Electronics dropped 0.68 percent, SK Hynix plunged 2.71 percent, Naver plummeted 4.90 percent, Lotte Chemical declined 1.67 percent, S-Oil tumbled 1.89 percent, SK Innovation sank 0.57 percent, POSCO surged 6.42 percent, SK Telecom shed 0.64 percent, KEPCO advanced 0.93 percent, Hyundai Mobis added 0.44 percent, Hyundai Motor rose 0.21 percent, Kia Motors accelerated 0.90 percent and LG Chem was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened lower on Tuesday, made back some ground as the day progressed but still finished solidly in the red.

The Dow dropped 158.64 points or 0.45 percent to finish at 35,314.49, while the NASDAQ slumped 110.07 points or 0.79 percent to close at 13,884.32 and the S&P 500 sank 19.06 points or 0.42 percent to end at 4,499.38.

The soft start on Wall Street may have been in response to the downward revision in the ratings of ten smaller banks by Moody's.

The markets got a bit of a boost when the U.S. Energy Information Administration projected U.S. GDP growth to rise by 1.9% this year; it also forecast a bump in the price forecast for oil prices.

In economic news, the U.S. trade deficit narrowed to a three-month low of $65.5 billion in June, from a downwardly revised $68.3 billion in May. Also, the National Federation of Independent Business said the NFIB Small Business Optimism index rose for a third straight month in July.

Crude oil prices settled higher on Tuesday following an upgrade to this year's GDP growth projections in the U.S. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for September ended higher by $0.98 at $82.92 a barrel.

Closer to home, South Korea will provide July data for unemployment later this morning; the jobless rate is expected to ease to 2.5 percent from 2.6 percent in June.