South Korea Shares May Remain Stuck In Neutral

(RTTNews) - The South Korea stock market has finished lower in three straight sessions, sinking more than 50 points or 2 percent along the way. The KOSPI now rests just beneath the 2,525-point plateau and it may inch lower again on Tuesday. The global forecast for the Asian markets is flat to lower amid a lack of catalysts as investors take a wait-and-see attitude. The European markets finished slightly lower and the U.S. bourses were mixed and little changed and the Asian markets also figure to tick lower. The KOSPI finished modestly lower on Monday following losses from the financials, technology chemical and oil stocks, while the automobile companies were up on bargain hunting. For the day, the index dropped 20.90 points or 0.82 percent to finish at 2,523.50 after trading between 2,518.73 and 2,541.89. Volume was 914.5 million shares worth 11.36 trillion won. There were 697 decliners and 203 gainers. Among the actives, Shinhan Financial retreated 1.39 percent, while KB Financial surrendered 1.80 percent, Hana Financial stumbled 1.30 percent, Samsung Electronics sank 0.76 percent, Samsung SDI skidded 1.09 percent, LG Electronics fell 0.37 percent, SK Hynix tumbled 2.13 percent, Naver eased 0.16 percent, LG Chem and Lotte Chemical both shed 0.52 percent, S-Oil dropped 0.90 percent, SK Innovation weakened 1.59 percent, POSCO added 0.63 percent, SK Telecom slumped 1.85 percent, KEPCO tanked 2.36 percent, Hyundai Mobis improved 0.87 percent, Hyundai Motor advanced 0.79 percent and Kia Motors jumped 1.68 percent.

The lead from Wall Street offers little clarity as the major averages spent most of Monday hugging the line before finally ending mixed and little changed.

The Dow rose 66.44 points or 0.20 percent to finish at 33,875.40, while the NASDAQ dipped 35.25 points or 0.29 percent to close at 12,037.20 and the S&P 500 rose 3.52 points or 0.09 percent to end at 4,137.04.

The choppy trading on Wall Street came as traders remained reluctant to make significant moves ahead of the release of earnings news from several big-name companies in the coming days.

Tech giants Alphabet (GOOGL), Amazon (AMZN), Intel (INTC), Meta Platforms (META) and Microsoft (MSFT) are among a slew of well-known companies due to report their quarterly results this week.

Reports on consumer confidence, new home sales, durable goods orders, first quarter GDP and personal income and spending are likely to attract attention in the coming days.

Crude oil futures settled higher on Monday following reports that OPEC is planning additional supply cuts. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for June ended higher by $0.89 or 1.1 percent at $78.76 a barrel.