South Korea Shares May Be Stuck In Neutral On Wednesday

(RTTNews) - The South Korea stock market on Tuesday ended the two-day winning streak in which it had collected more than 50 points or 1.9 percent. The KOSPI now sits just above the 2,590-point plateau and it's likely to remain in that neighborhood again on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests little movement amidst a lack of catalysts and ahead of key U.S. employment data later this week. The European markets were slightly lower and the U.S. bourses were closed for the Independence Day holiday and the Asian markets figure to see a steady start.

The KOSPI finished modestly lower on Tuesday following losses from the financial shares and chemical companies, while the automobile companies were mixed.

For the day, the index slipped 9.16 points or 0.35 percent to finish at 2,593.31. Volume was 662.9 million shares worth 9.02 trillion won. There were 586 decliners and 292 gainers.

Among the actives, Shinhan Financial skidded 1.16 percent, while KB Financial shed 0.51 percent, Hana Financial stumbled 1.62 percent, Samsung SDI sank 0.84 percent, LG Electronics advanced 0.87 percent, SK Hynix rose 0.26 percent, Naver slid 0.32 percent, LG Chem declined 1.59 percent, Lotte Chemical plunged 2.27 percent, S-Oil tumbled 1.81 percent, SK Innovation spiked 1.96 percent, POSCO perked 0.12 percent, SK Telecom slumped 1.19 percent, KEPCO eased 0.24 percent, Hyundai Mobis lost 0.65 percent, Hyundai Motor fell 0.24 percent, Kia Motors added 0.45 percent and Samsung Electronics was unchanged.

There is no lead from Wall Street, although the European markets saw mild consolidation on disappointing economic data, while Canadian shares ticked slightly higher on gains from energy companies.

Traders will look to the minutes of the latest U.S. Federal Reserve meeting later today, along with the Labor Department's closely watched monthly jobs report on Friday.

Recent data has pointed to a resilient U.S. economy, while slowing inflation has added to optimism about the outlook for interest rates. The Fed is still widely expected to raise interest rates by a quarter point later this month, but traders are hopeful that will be end of the rate-hiking cycle.