Rebound Anticipated For South Korea Shares

(RTTNews) - The South Korea stock market on Monday wrote a finish to the four-day winning streak in which it had jumped almost 110 points or 4 percent. The KOSPI now rests just shy of the 2,620-point plateau although it figures to bounce higher again on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to higher on optimism over the outlook for interest rates. 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 modestly lower on Monday following losses from the financial shares, technology stocks and automobile producers.

For the day, the index lost 9.30 points or 0.35 percent, to finish at 2,619. Volume was 540.02 million shares worth 11.48 trillion won. There were 511 decliners and 370 gainers.

Among the actives, Shinhan Financial dipped 0.15 percent, while KB Financial slid 0.21 percent, Hana Financial lost 0.64 percent, Samsung Electronics eased 0.14 percent, Samsung SDI tanked 2.93 percent, LG Electronics declined 1.28 percent, SK hynix shed 0.68 percent, Naver advanced 0.98 percent, LG Chem retreated 1.47 percent, SK Innovation rose 0.18 percent, POSCO surged 6.94 percent, SK Telecom skidded 1.09 percent, KEPCO tumbled 2.25 percent, Hyundai Mobis tumbled 1.61 percent, Hyundai Motor stumbled 2.40 percent and Kia Company slumped 2.37 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is upbeat as the major averages opened mixed on Monday but all quickly turned higher. They pulled back from daily highs but still ended firmly in the green.

The Dow added 76.32 points or 0.22 percent to finish at 34,585.35, while the NASDAQ jumped 131.25 points or 0.93 percent to close at 14,244.95 and the S&P 500 rose 17.37 points or 0.39 percent to end at 4,522.79.

The strength on Wall Street partly reflected recent upward momentum, as encouraging inflation data has added to optimism about the outlook for interest rates ahead of next week's Federal Reserve meeting.

While the Fed is widely expected to raise rates by another quarter point, traders are hopeful that will mark the final rate hike.

On the U.S. economic front, the New York Federal Reserve released a report showing a pullback in the pace of growth in regional manufacturing activity in the month of July.

Oil prices fell on Monday amid concerns about the outlook for energy demand after data showed the Chinese economy grew at slower than expected pace in the second quarter. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for August ended lower by $1.27 or 1.7 percent at $74.15 a barrel.