South Korea Shares May Tick Lower On Wednesday

(RTTNews) - The South Korea stock market on Tuesday snapped the two-day losing streak in which it had slipped more than 30 points or 1.2 percent. The KOSPI now rests just above the 2,430-point plateau and it may see renewed selling pressure on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed with little change ahead of key economic events that are likely to affect the outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets were mixed and flat and the Asian bourses figure to follow suit.

The KOSPI finished sharply higher on Tuesday following gains from the financial shares, technology stocks, automobile companies and airlines.

For the day, the index advanced 25.12 points or 1.04 percent to finish at 2,433.39 after trading between 2,401.10 and 2,433.87. Volume was 522.6 million shares worth 6.35 trillion won. There were 659 gainers and 196 decliners.

Among the actives, Shinhan Financial jumped 2.89 percent, while KB Financial surged 4.67 percent, Hana Financial soared 4.54 percent, Samsung Electronics advanced 0.83 percent, Samsung SDI slumped 1.24 percent, LG Electronics added 0.64 percent, SK Hynix improved 0.72 percent, Naver gathered 1.11 percent, LG Chem shed 0.56 percent, Lotte Chemical accelerated 5.41 percent, S-Oil strengthened 2.97 percent, SK Innovation rose 0.29 percent, POSCO dipped 0.17 percent, SK Telecom eased 0.20 percent, KEPCO climbed 1.25 percent, Hyundai Motor gained 0.90 percent, Kia Motors rallied 2.91 percent, Korea Air Lines spiked 2.65 percent, Asiana Airlines skyrocketed 11.54 percent and Hyundai Mobis was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street suggests a mild negative bias as the major averages opened higher, tumbled mid-session but then bounced back to finish mixed and little changed.

The Dow added 3.07 points or 0.01 percent to finish at 33,852.53, while the NASDAQ lost 65.72 points or 0.59 percent to end at 10,983.78 and the S&P 500 dipped 6.31 points or 0.16 percent to close at 3,957.63.

The choppy trading on Wall Street came amid lingering uncertainty about the situation in China following widespread protests over the country's Covid restrictions.

Traders may also have been reluctant to make significant moves ahead of remarks from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell later today, which may offer additional clues about the outlook for interest rates. Jobless data follows on Friday.

In economic news, the Conference Board released a report showing a modest decrease in U.S. consumer confidence in November.

Crude oil futures settled higher Tuesday, extending gains from the previous session on hopes that OPEC may trim production to support prices later this week. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for January ended higher by $$0.96 or 1.2 percent at $78.20 a barrel.

Closer to home, South Korea will release October data for industrial production and retail sales later this morning. Output is expected to slip 1.0 percent on month and be flat on year after shedding 1.8 percent on month and rising 0.8 percent on year in September. Retail sales were down 1.8 percent on month and 0.7 percent on year in September.