South Korea Stock Market May Crack Resistance At 2,500 Points

(RTTNews) - The South Korea stock market has climbed higher in back-to-back trading days, collecting more than 40 points or 1.7 percent along the way. The KOSPI now rests just above the 2,475-point plateau and it may extend its winning streak on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian bourses is positive after interest rate concerns resulted in oversold markets. The European and U.S. markets were up and the Asian markets are tipped to open in similar fashion.

The KOSPI finished sharply higher on Thursday following gains from the oil, chemical, technology and automobile companies.

For the day, the index improved 29.81 points or 1.22 percent to finish at the daily high of 2,477.26 after trading as low as 2,455.32. Volume was 410.32 million shares worth 7.06 trillion won. There were 708 gainers and 150 decliners.

Among the actives, Shinhan Financial and SK Hynix both advanced 0.97 percent, while KB Financial dipped 0.20 percent, Hana Financial collected 0.90 percent, Samsung Electronics climbed 1.19 percent, Samsung SDI lost 0.68 percent, LG Electronics improved 1.02 percent, Naver strengthened 1.24 percent, LG Chem rose 0.33 percent, Lotte Chemical perked 0.28 percent, S-Oil rallied 1.93 percent, POSCO jumped 2.04 percent, SK Telecom accelerated 2.15 percent, KEPCO spiked 2.21 percent, Hyundai Mobis rallied 1.44 percent, Hyundai Motor soared 2.13 percent, Kia Motors surged 3.26 percent and SK Innovation was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is upbeat as the major averages opened mixed on Thursday but quickly turned higher and maintained a largely positive bias throughout the day, ending near session highs.

The Dow spiked 322.55 points or 0.98 percent to finish at 33,291.78, while the NASDAQ surged 207.74 points or 1.67 percent to end at 12,639.27 and the S&P 500 jumped 58.35 points or 1.41 percent to end at 4,199.12.

The strength that emerged on Wall Street came as traders looked ahead to Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's speech in the Jackson Hole Symposium later today.

Powell is widely expected to reiterate the central bank's hawkish stance, given the expectations that inflation in the U.S. will be persistent and it will take time to contain it. That has already largely been priced into the markets, however.

On the economic front, the Labor Department said the U.S. economy contracted an annualized 0.6 percent in the second quarter, following a 1.6 percent drop a quarter earlier. Also, the Labor Department said initial jobless claims dropped more than expected last week.

Crude oil futures settled lower Thursday, after posting gains in the previous two sessions. Oil prices fell as traders weighed the prospects for the return of Iranian oil to the market. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures ended lower by $2.37 or 2.5 percent at $92.52 a barrel.