South Korea Bourse May Head South Again On Thursday

The South Korea stock market on Wednesday finally wrote a finish to the losing streak that had stretched eight sessions and cost more than 140 points or 4.4 percent. The KOSPI now rests just beneath the 3,160-point plateau although it may face renewed selling pressure again on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests consolidation on concerns over the outlook for interest rates and sinking crude oil prices. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The KOSPI finished modestly higher on Wednesday following gains from the oil and chemical companies, while the technology and financial shares were mixed.

For the day, the index added 15.84 points or 0.50 percent to finish at 3,158.93 after trading between 3,124.56 and 3,175.88. Volume was 614 million shares worth 16.5 trillion won. There were 645 gainers and 212 decliners.

Among the actives, Shinhan Financial collected 0.39 percent, while KB Financial shed 0.38 percent, Hana Financial was up 0.11 percent, Samsung Electronics fell 0.40 percent, LG Electronics spiked 1.66 percent, SK Hynix rallied 2.46 percent, Naver rose 0.12 percent, LG Chem added 0.34 percent, Lotte Chemical jumped 1.87 percent, S-Oil advanced 0.87 percent, SK Innovation perked 0.21 percent, POSCO slid 0.15 percent, SK Telecom gained 0.68 percent, KEPCO increased 0.62 percent, Hyundai Motor dipped 0.23 percent and Kia Motors was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened slightly lower on Wednesday and hugged the line for much of the day but then accelerated into the red toward the close.

The Dow tumbled 382.59 points or 1.08 percent to finish at 34,960.69, while the NASDAQ dropped 130.27 points or 0.89 percent to close at 14,525.91 and the S&P 500 sank 47.81 points or 1.07 percent to end at 4,400.27.

The sell-off on Wall Street came as the Fed minutes revealed most officials at the central bank’s July monetary policy meeting believe it will be appropriate to begin tapering asset purchases this year.

The minutes showed participants also expressed a range of views on the appropriate pace of tapering asset purchases once economic conditions satisfied the “substantial further progress” criterion.

Reflecting the recent surge in new cases of the delta variant of the coronavirus, several participants noted their views on the appropriate path of asset purchases could change if the economic effects of the new strains of the virus turn out to be notably worse than anticipated.

Crude oil prices drifted lower Wednesday on concerns about the outlook for energy demand amid the surge in the delta variant of the coronavirus in several countries. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for September ended down $1.13 or 1.7 percent at $65.46 a barrel, the lowest close since May 21.