South Korea Stock Market May Turn Lower Again On Wednesday

(RTTNews) - The South Korea stock market on Tuesday halted the two-day slide in which it had fallen more than 15 points or 0.6 percent. The KOSPI now rests just beneath the 2,435-point plateau although it may hand back some of those gains on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is flat to lower on concerns over the outlook for interest rates and the health of the banking sector. The European markets were slightly higher and the U.S. bourses were slightly lower and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The KOSPI finished sharply higher on Tuesday following gains from the financial shares, chemical companies and industrials, while the technology stocks were mixed.

For the day, the index climbed 25.72 points or 1.07 percent to finish at the daily high of 2,434.94 after moving as low as 2,415.34. Volume was 516 million shares worth 8.6 trillion won. There were 689 gainers and 190 decliners.

Among the actives, Shinhan Financial spiked 3.16 percent, while KB Financial accelerated 2.57 percent, Hana Financial collected 1.62 percent, Samsung Electronics climbed 1.29 percent, Samsung SDI eased 0.14 percent, LG Electronics retreated 1.50 percent, SK Hynix soared 3.39 percent, Naver gathered 0.10 percent, LG Chem advanced 0.86 percent, Lotte Chemical skyrocketed 5.09 percent, S-Oil jumped 2.10 percent, SK Innovation tumbled 2.16 percent, POSCO rallied 2.11 percent, SK Telecom perked 0.21 percent, KEPCO was up 0.11 percent, Hyundai Mobis gained 0.95 percent, Hyundai Motor added 0.57 percent and Kia Motors improved 1.18 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened mixed on Tuesday, but they all headed south throughout the session and ended in the red.

The Dow shed 37.83 points or 0.12 percent to finish at 32,394.25, while the NASDAQ sank 52.76 points or 0.45 percent to end at 11,716.08 and the S&P 500 fell 6.26 points or 0.16 percent to close at 3,971.27.

The weakness that emerged on Wall Street reflected ongoing concerns about the outlook for interest rates amid a continued increase in treasury yields as the 10-year yield climbed further off last Friday's six-month closing low.

In economic news, the Conference Board unexpectedly reported a slight improvement in U.S. consumer confidence in March.

Crude oil prices climbed higher Tuesday on easing concerns about global banking sector woes, lifting the most active oil futures contract to a two-week closing high. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for May ended higher by $0.39 or 0.5 percent at $73.20 a barrel.