South Korea Bourse May Extend Losing Streak

The South Korea stock market has finished lower in four straight sessions, tumbling almost 80 points or 2.6 percent along the way. The KOSPI now sits just above the 2,935-point plateau and it’s expected to take further damage again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is broadly negative on fears of lockdown measures following the rapid spread of a new COVID variant. The European and U.S. markets were sharply lower and the Asian bourses figure to open in similar fashion.

The KOSPI finished sharply lower on Friday with damage across the board – especially from the oil, financial and technology sectors.

For the day, the index sank 43.83 points or 1.47 percent to finish at 2,936.44 after trading between 2,930.31 and 2,985.77. Volume was 582 million shares worth 11.6 trillion won. There were 799 decliners and 105 gainers.

Among the actives, Shinhan Financial skidded 1.74 percent, while KB Financial tanked 2.28 percent, Hana Financial retreated 1.76 percent, Samsung Electronics sank 1.90 percent, LG Electronics slumped 2.79 percent, SK Hynix lost 1.70 percent, Naver fell 1.51 percent, LG Chem cratered 1.89 percent, Lotte Chemical tumbled 2.90 percent, S-Oil plunged 3.42 percent, SK Innovation plummeted 5.00 percent, POSCO surrendered 1.81 percent, KEPCO dropped 0.90 percent, Hyundai Motor stumbled 2.14 percent, Kia Motors declined 2.18 percent and SK Telecom was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street suggests heavy selling pressure as the major averages opened sharpy lower on Friday and remained that way throughout the session.

The Dow plummeted 905.04 points or 2.53 percent to finish at 34,899.34, while the NASDAQ plunged 353.57 points or 2.23 percent to close at 15,491.66 and the S&P 500 tumbled 106.84 points or 2.27 percent to end at 4,594.62.

For the week, the NASDAQ dropped 3.5 percent, the Dow sank 2.2 percent and the S&P retreated 2.0 percent.

The sell-off on Wall Street followed reports a new coronavirus variant has been detected in South Africa. The news, which comes amid a surge in new Covid-19 cases in Europe, raised concerns the pandemic could continue to wreak havoc on the global economy.

Crude oil prices plummeted on Friday, sending the most active crude futures contract to their biggest single-session fall this year as reports of the new coronavirus variant raised concerns about the outlook for energy demand. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for December ended down $10.24 or 13 percent at $68.15 a barrel, the biggest single-session loss since April 2020.