Little Movement Anticipated For South Korea Shares

The South Korea stock market has moved higher in back-to-back trading days, collecting almost 75 points or 2.5 percent along the way. The KOSPI now rests just beneath the 3,000-point plateau and it’s likely to hover in that neighborhood again on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets offers little clarity amid a lack of catalysts, although mild support from crude oil prices should limit any downside. The European markets were slightly higher and the U.S. bourses were barely lower and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The KOSPI finished sharply higher on Monday following gains from the technology stocks and mixed performances from the financial, chemical, oil and automobile sectors.

For the day, the index climbed 30.72 points or 1.03 percent to finish at 2,999.52 after trading between 2,979.96 and 3,003.71. Volume was 631 million shares worth 11.2 trillion won. There were 626 gainers and 238 decliners.

Among the actives, Shinhan Financial collected 0.67 percent, while KB Financial eased 0.18 percent, Hana Financial dipped 0.11 percent, Samsung Electronics climbed 1.13 percent, LG Electronics rallied 2.05 percent, SK Hynix soared 4.23 percent, Naver gained 0.49 percent, Samsung SDI perked 0.40 percent, LG Chem skidded 1.16 percent, Lotte Chemical jumped 1.16 percent, S-Oil fell 0.41 percent, SK Innovation advanced 0.88 percent, KEPCO retreated 1.30 percent, Hyundai Motor added 0.48 percent, Kia Motors dipped 0.35 percent and POSCO and SK Telecom were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is of little help as the major averages opened higher on Monday but quickly faded, spending the rest of the session hugging the unchanged line and ending barely in the red.

The Dow shed 12.86 points or 0.04 percent to finish at 36,087.45, while the NASDAQ dipped 7.11 points or 0.04 percent to close at 15,853.85 and the S&P 500 eased 0.05 points or 0.00 percent to end at 4,682.80.

The choppy trading on Wall Street came as traders expressed some uncertainty about the near-term outlook for the markets.

Concerns about inflation continued to weigh on investors’ minds after last week’s report showing consumer prices increased at their fastest annual rate in over thirty years in October. The elevated pace of inflation has led to worries that the Federal Reserve might be forced to accelerate its plans to begin tightening monetary policy.

In U.S. economic news, the New York Federal Reserve reported that New York manufacturing activity grew strongly in November.

Crude oil futures settled marginally higher Monday after plunging earlier in the session on expectations of higher supplies and weakening demand. The dollar’s climb to a 16-month high also weighed on oil prices early on in the session. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for December ended higher by $0.09 or 0.1 percent at $80.88 a barrel.