Rebound Anticipated For South Korea Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The South Korea stock market on Wednesday snapped the three-day winning streak in which it had collected almost 75 points or 2.9 percent. The KOSPI market now rests just above the 2,620-point plateau although it's expected to bounce higher again on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is broadly positive, with selling in the previous session deemed to be seriously overdone. The European and U.S. markets were up and the Asian markets figure to open in similar fashion.

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

For the day, the index dropped 29.22 points or 1.10 percent to finish at 2,620.42 after trading between 2,601.99 and 2,627.31. Volume was 534.17 million shares worth 9.93 trillion won. There were 509 decliners and 378 gainers.

Among the actives, Shinhan Financial retreated 1.57 percent, while KB Financial tanked 3.44 percent, Hana Financial plunged 3.78 percent, Samsung Electronics surrendered 1.60 percent, Samsung SDI slumped 1.15 percent, LG Electronics fell 0.40 percent, SK Hynix lost 0.87 percent, Naver weakened 1.22 percent, LG Chem tumbled 2.12 percent, Lotte Chemical was down 1.78 percent, S-Oil eased 0.14 percent, SK Innovation shed 0.65 percent, POSCO skidded 1.14 percent, SK Telecom sank 0.77 percent, KEPCO dropped 0.94 percent, Hyundai Mobis stumbled 2.14 percent, Hyundai Motor declined 1.41 percent and Kia Motors added 0.34 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is upbeat as the major averages opened higher on Wednesday and largely remained that way, ending near session highs.

The Dow jumped 151.52 points or 0.40 percent to finish at 38,424.27, while the NASDAQ rallied 203.55 points or 1.30 percent to end at 15,859.15 and the S&P 500 advanced 47.45 points or 0.96 percent to close at 5,000.62.

The rebound on Wall Street reflected bargain hunting, with traders seeing Tuesday's sharp pullback as a buying opportunity amid ongoing optimism about the outlook for the markets.

While Tuesday's hotter-than-expected inflation data further pushed back interest rate cut hopes, signs of continued strength in the economy are still expected to benefit the markets long term.

The Federal Reserve is also still likely to begin lower interest rates sometime in the coming months, even if traders have to wait until June.

Oil futures settled lower on Wednesday, snapping a seven-day winning streak after data showed a big increase in crude inventories in the U.S. last week. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for March ended down $1.23 or about 1.6 percent at $76.64 a barrel.