South Korea Stock Market: Resistance Likely At 2,500 Points

(RTTNews) - The South Korea stock market has moved higher in three straight sessions, collecting almost 90 points or 3.6 percent along the way. The KOSPI now rests just shy of the 2,550-point plateau, although it's due for profit taking on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is cloudy and fairly flat amidst a lack of catalysts. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were mixed and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The KOSPI finished sharply higher on Tuesday following gains from the financials, chemicals, technology stocks and automobile producers.

For the day, the index spiked 35.78 points or 1.42 percent to finish at 2,547.86. Volume was 756.6 million shares worth 13.9 trillion won. There were 684 gainers and 202 decliners.

Among the actives, Shinhan Financial rose 0.29 percent, while KB Financial collected 0.86 percent, Hana Financial strengthened 1.48 percent, Samsung Electronics increased 0.30 percent, LG Electronics dipped 0.35 percent, SK Hynix climbed 1.21 percent, Naver spiked 3.58 percent, LG Chem skyrocketed 7.47 percent, Lotte Chemical added 0.49 percent, SK Innovation rallied 2.68 percent, POSCO fell 0.38 percent, SK Telecom perked 0.21 percent, KEPCO gained 0.72 percent, Hyundai Mobis accelerated 3.51 percent, Hyundai Motor soared 3.34 percent, Kia Motors surged 4.94 percent and S-Oil was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street continues to be mixed as the Dow opened higher and stayed that way, the NASDAQ opened lower and stayed that way and the S&P 500 hugged the line all day and finished barely in the red.

The Dow added 98.27 points or 0.29 percent to finish at 33,684.79, while the NASDAQ shed 52.48 points or 0.43 percent to close at 12,031.88 and the S&P 500 eased 0.17 points or 0.00 percent to end at 4,108.94.

A lack of major U.S. economic data kept some traders on the sidelines ahead of the release of several key reports in the coming days.

The Labor Department's report on consumer price inflation in the month of March is due to be released later today and could have a significant impact on the outlook for interest rates.

Crude oil prices surged Tuesday on optimism for additional Chinese economic stimulus after soft inflation data from China created room for its central bank to potentially ease its monetary policy. West Texas Intermediate crude for May delivery surged $1.79 to $81.53 a barrel.