South Korea Shares May See Continued Consolidation

(RTTNews) - The South Korea stock market on Friday ended the three-day winning streak in which it had advanced almost 60 points or 2.2 percent to a 22-month closing high. The KOSPI now rests just above the 2,665-point plateau and it may take further damage on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is one of caution ahead of the FOMC meeting later this week. The European markets were mixed and flat and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

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

For the day, the index tumbled 51.92 points or 1.91 percent to finish at the daily low of 2,666.84 after peaking at 2,705.59. Volume was 575 million shares worth 12.9 trillion won. There were 557 decliners and 224 gainers.

Among the actives, Shinhan Financial surrendered 3.69 percent, while KB Financial tumbled 3.05 percent, Hana Financial plunged 3.87 percent, Samsung Electronics tanked 2.69 percent, Samsung SDI plummeted 4.71 percent, LG Electronics dipped 0.40 percent, SK Hynix fell 0.43 percent, Naver slid 0.37 percent, LG Chem crashed 4.34 percent, Lotte Chemical shed 0.57 percent, S-Oil jumped1.80 percent, SK Innovation lost 0.48 percent, POSCO retreated 1.58 percent, SK Telecom declined 1.67 percent, KEPCO rose 0.20 percent, Hyundai Mobis rallied 1.51 percent, Hyundai Motor slumped 3.18 percent and Kia Motors stumbled 2.72 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened lower on Friday and remained under water throughout the trading day.

The Dow tumbled 190.89 points or 0.49 percent to finish at 38,714.77, while the NASDAQ dropped 155.36 points or 0.96 percent to close at 15,973.17 and the S&P 500 sank 33.39 points or 0.65 percent to end at 5,117.09. For the week, the NASDAQ fell 0.7 percent, the S&P eased 0.1 percent and the Dow was nearly flat.

The weakness on Wall Street reflected concerns about the outlook for interest rates ahead of the Fed's monetary policy meeting later this week.

While the Fed is widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged, traders will look to the accompanying statement for clues about the outlook for rates. Recent hotter-than-expected inflation readings have reduced optimism that the Fed's first rate cut may come in June.

In economic news, the Labor Department said U.S. import prices increased in line with estimates in February, while export prices exceeded expectations. The Fed also noted a slight increase in U.S. industrial production in February.

Oil prices dropped on Friday, retreating from multi-month highs, due largely to profit taking after recent strong gains. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for April ended down by $0.22 at $81.04 a barrel.