Overbought KOSPI Called Higher Again On Tuesday

(RTTNews) - The South Korea stock market has moved higher in back-to-back sessions, rallying more than 600 points or 7.5 percent in that span. Now at a fresh record closing high, the KOSPI sits just beneath the 8,790-point plateau and it may extend its gains again on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests mild upside on support from the technology shares. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The KOSPI finished with huge gains again following strong support from the technology companies, while the financials, industrials and chemicals were mixed.

For the day, the index surged 311.85 points or 3.68 percent to finish at 8,788.38 after trading between 8,485.67 and 8,874.16. Volume was 618.17 million shares worth 69.4 trillion won. There were 712 decliners and 194 gainers.

Among the actives, Shinhan Financial skidded 1.07 percent, while KB Financial collected 1.00 percent, Hana Financial slumped 1.04 percent, Samsung Electronics surged 10.09 percent, Samsung SDI plunged 5.23 percent, LG Electronics rallied 29.86 percent, SK Hynix advanced 1.29 percent, Naver skyrocketed 16.03 percent, LG Chem climbed 1.07 percent, Lotte Chemical tanked 2.85 percent, SK Innovation tumbled 2.52 percent, POSCO Holdings surrendered 2.48 percent, SK Telecom soared 11.53 percent, KEPCO shed 0.64 percent, Hyundai Mobis dropped 0.91 percent, Hyundai Motor accelerated 3.73 percent and Kia Motors rose 0.41 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is positive as the major averages opened under water on Monday but quickly started to trend higher, finally ending at fresh record closing highs.

The Dow added 46.42 points or 0.09 percent to finish at 51,078.88. while the NASDAQ climbed 114.19 points or 0.42 percent to end at 27,086.81 and the S&P 500 rose 19.90 points or 0.26 percent to close at 7,599.96.

The higher close on Wall Street partly reflected strength among tech stocks after Nvidia (NVDA) unveiled a new superchip RTX Spark in collaboration with Microsoft (MSFT) that the company said reinvents Windows PCs for the era of personal AI agents.

Buying interest was somewhat subdued, however, as the price of crude oil surged in reaction to the latest developments regarding the conflict in the Middle East.

Crude oil prices skyrocketed Monday on reports the U.S. and Iran exchanging attacks while the U.S. is yet to endorse a negotiated settlement to end the war. West Texas Intermediate crude for July delivery was up $4.64 or 5.31 percent at $92.00 per barrel.

However, crude oil prices pulled back off their highs after President Donald Trump said talks with Iran are continuing at a "rapid pace," while positive communications with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hezbollah also spurred hopes for an end to the war.

Closer to home, South Korea will provide May numbers for consumer prices later this morning, with forecasts suggesting an increase of 0.3 percent on month and 3.0 percent on year. That follows the 0.5 percent monthly increase and the 2.6 percent yearly gain in April.