South Korea Shares May Take Further Damage On Thursday

(RTTNews) - The South Korea stock market headed south again on Wednesday, one day after snapping the three-day slide in which it plunged almost 110 points or 4.3 percent. The KOSPI now sits just above the 2,360-point plateau and the losses may accelerate on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to lower, with tech shares likely to weigh after disappointing earnings. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The KOSPI finished modestly lower on Wednesday following losses from the industrials and mixed performances from the financials, chemicals and technology shares.

For the day, the index dropped 20.34 points or 0.85 percent to finish at 2,363.17 after trading between 2,362.69 and 2,389.90. Volume was 435 million shares worth 7.7 trillion won. There were 613 gainers and 267 decliners.

Among the actives, Shinhan Financial climbed 1.00 percent, while KB Financial tanked 2.16 percent, Hana Financial collected 0.71 percent, Samsung Electronics sank 0.73 percent, Samsung SDI plummeted 7.19 percent, LG Electronics rallied 3.24 percent, SK Hynix added 0.55 percent, Naver climbed 1.12 percent, LG Chem tumbled 6.91 percent, Lotte Chemical skyrocketed 7.16 percent, S-Oil rose 0.14 percent, SK Innovation stumbled 5.67 percent, POSCO plunged 6.01 percent, SK Telecom eased 0.10 percent, KEPCO improved 1.29 percent, Hyundai Mobis jumped 1.61 percent, Hyundai Motor shed 0.44 percent and Kia Motors dipped 0.12 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is broadly negative as the major averages opened mixed on Wednesday but quickly headed south and finished near session lows.

The Dow dropped 105.45 points or 0.32 percent to finish at 33,035.93, while the NASDAQ plunged 318,65 points or 2.43 percent to close at 12,821,22 and the S&P 500 sank 60.91 points or 1.43 percent to end at 4,186.77.

The particularly steep drop by the NASDAQ reflected a negative reaction to quarterly results from Alphabet (GOOGL), with the Google parent plunging 9.5 percent after the company reported Q3 earnings that beat estimates but had weaker than expected revenue from its cloud business.

A renewed increase by treasury yields also weighed on the markets, with the yield on the benchmark 10-year note spiking after ending the previous session little changed.

The surge by yields came as traders looked ahead to key economic data in the coming days, including a preliminary reading on third quarter GDP on Thursday and personal income on Friday.

Oil futures settled higher on Wednesday, snapping a three-day losing streak amid likely disruptions in supply due to the tensions in the Middle East. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for November ended higher by $1.65 or 1.97 percent at $85.39 a barrel.

Closer to home, South Korea will on Thursday release preliminary Q3 numbers for gross domestic product later this morning. GDP is expected to rise 0.5 percent on quarter and 1.1 percent on year after adding 0.6 percent on quarter and 0.9 percent on year in the three months prior.