South Korea Bourse May Hand Back Thursday’s Gains

The South Korea stock market bounced higher again on Thursday, one day after ending the three-day winning streak in which it had collected almost 40 points or 1.5 percent. The KOSPI now rests just above the 2,600-point plateau although it figures to head south again on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to lower on profit taking and reduced optimism over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets are expected to trend in the latter direction.

The KOSPI finished modestly higher following gains from the financials, weakness from the industrials and mixed performances from the technology and chemical companies.

For the day, the index gained 11.45 points or 0.44 percent to finish at 2,603.81. Volume was 585.77 million shares worth 23.79 trillion won. There were 729 gainers and 174 decliners.

Among the actives, Shinhan Financial spiked 5.24 percent, while KB Financial collected 4.23 percent, Hana Financial accelerated 4.57 percent, Samsung Electronics rallied 2.72 percent, Samsung SDI plunged 5.83 percent, LG Electronics climbed 1.03 percent, SK Hynix skyrocketed 9.73 percent, Naver increased 6.98 percent, LG Chem plummeted 9.62 percent, Lotte Chemical advanced 3.33 percent, S-Oil improved 1.80 percent, SK Innovation crashed 8.56 percent, POSCO tanked 5.71 percent, SK Telecom jumped 3.12 percent, KEPCO strengthened 1.88 percent, Hyundai Mobis fell 0.43 percent, Hyundai Motor shed 0.45 percent and Kia Motors added 0.61 percent.

The lead from Wall Street ends up negative as the major averages opened higher on Thursday but faded late and ended modestly in the red.

The Dow dropped 237.40 points or 0.67 percent to finish at 35,282.72, while the NASDAQ slumped 77.17 points or 0.55 percent to close at 14,050.11 and the S&P 500 fell 29.34 points or 0.64 percent to end at 4,537.41.

The early strength on Wall Street partly reflected a positive reaction to upbeat earnings news from the likes of Facebook parent Meta Platforms (META) and fast food giant McDonald’s (MCD).

Stocks also initially benefitted from the release of a batch of upbeat U.S. economic data, including a Commerce Department showing an unexpected acceleration in the pace of economic growth in the second quarter.

However, the upbeat data subsequently raised some concerns about the outlook for interest rates following Wednesday’s monetary policy decision by the Federal Reserve.

Oil prices climbed higher on Thursday thanks to prospects of tighter supply in the market due to production cuts by OPEC and allies. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for September jumped $1.31 or 1.7 percent at $80.09 a barrel.

Closer to home, South Korea will release June figures for industrial production and retail sales later this morning. Output is expected to slump 2.3 percent on month and 7.6 percent on year after adding 3.2 percent on month and falling 7.3 percent on year in May. Sales are called flat on month after adding 0.4 percent in May.