South Korea Stock Market May Remain Stuck In Neutral

(RTTNews) - The South Korea stock market has moved lower in four straight sessions, slipping more than 45 points or 1.9 percent along the way. The KOSPI now rests just above the 2,475-point plateau and it may spin its wheels again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to lower on concerns over recession and the debt ceiling. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The KOSPI finished modestly lower on Friday following losses from the financial shares and oil companies, while the technology and industrial stocks were mixed.

For the day, the index shed 15.58 points or 0.63 percent to finish at 2,475.42. Volume was 782.19 million shares worth 8.21 trillion won. There were 650 decliners and 233 gainers.

Among the actives, Shinhan Financial tumbled 1.84 percent, while KB Financial retreated 1.22 percent, Hana Financial tanked 1.91 percent, Samsung Electronics eased 0.16 percent, Samsung SDI lost 0.75 percent, LG Electronics plummeted 3.79 percent, SK Hynix advanced 1.04 percent, Naver rallied 1.18 percent, LG Chem shed 0.43 percent, Lotte Chemical climbed 1.09 percent, S-Oil declined 1.38 percent, SK Innovation dropped 0.62 percent, POSCO perked 0.28 percent, SK Telecom fell 0.40 percent, KEPCO jumped 1.86 percent, Hyundai Mobis plunged 2.17 percent, Hyundai Motor rose 0.24 percent and Kia Motors sank 0.78 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened higher on Friday but quickly turned lower, spending the rest of the session in the red and finishing with mild losses.

The Dow dipped 8.88 points or 0.03 percent to finish at 33,300.62, while the NASDAQ sank 43.76 points or 0.35 percent to end at 12,284.74 and the S&P 500 eased 6.54 points or 0.16 percent to close at 4,124.08.

For the week, the Dow slumped 1.1 percent, the S&P fell 0.3 percent and but the NASDAQ rose 0.4 percent.

The early downturn on Wall Street followed the release of a report from the University of Michigan showing U.S. consumer sentiment deteriorated much more than anticipated in May.

Worries about the debt ceiling crisis also continued to hang over the markets, with the postponement of a meeting between President Joe Biden and top lawmakers adding to jitters about a potential default.

Crude oil prices fell Friday on the dollar's strength and worries about the outlook for energy demand. Fears of the U.S. falling into a recession and the impasse in debt ceiling talks boosted dollar's safe-haven appeal and hurt oil prices. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures fell $0.83 or 1.2 percent at $70.04 a barrel.

Closer to home, South Korea is scheduled to provide April data for imports, exports and trade balance later this morning. In March, imports were down 13.3 percent on year and exports fell 14.2 percent for a trade deficit of $2.62 billion.