Little Movement Expected For South Korea Shares

The South Korea stock market has moved higher in two of three trading days since he end of the two-day slide in which it had fallen more than 20 points or 0.8 percent. The KOSPI now rests just beneath the 2,610-point plateau and it’s likely to remain in that neighborhood again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed and flat ahead of this week’s rate decision from the FOMC. The European and U.S. markets were mixed and little changed and the Asian bourses figure to follow that lead.

The KOSPI finished modestly higher on Friday as gains from the financials, industrials and oil companies were capped by weakness from the technology shares and a mixed picture from the chemical companies.

For the day, the index gained 9.53 points or 0.37 percent to finish at 2,609.76. Volume was 491.8 million shares worth 12 trillion won. There were 507 decliners and 353 gainers.

Among the actives, Shinhan Financial collected 0.44 percent, while KB Financial climbed 0.93 percent, Hana Financial added 0.51 percent, Samsung Electronics dropped 0.99 percent, LG Electronics lost 0.49 percent, SK Hynix declined 1.54 percent, Naver gained 0.73 percent, LG Chem improved 1.31 percent, Lotte Chemical slumped 0.67 percent, S-Oil advanced 0.85 percent, SK Innovation jumped 1.73 percent, POSCO skyrocketed 10.75 percent, SK Telecom increased 0.78 percent, KEPCO retreated 1.23 percent, Hyundai Mobis perked 0.21 percent, Hyundai Motor dipped 0.25 percent and Kia Motors rose 0.24 percent.

The lead from Wall Street offers little guidance as the major averages opened higher on Friday but faded as the day progressed, ending mixed and little changed.

The Dow added 2.49 points or 0.01 percent to finish at 35,227.69, while the NASDAQ lost 30.49 points or 0.22 percent to close at 14,032.81 and the S&P 500 rose 1.47 points or 0.03 percent to end at 4,536.34.

With the uptick, the Dow closed higher for the 10th straight session and surged 2.1 percent for the week. The S&P 500 also climbed 0.7 percent for the week, while the NASDAQ fell 0.6 percent.

The choppy trading on Wall Street came as traders seemed reluctant to make significant moves ahead of the Federal Reserve’s highly anticipated monetary policy meeting this week.

With the Fed widely expected to raise interest rates by another 25 basis point, traders are likely to pay close attention to the accompanying statement for clues about the outlook for rates.

Oil futures settled higher on Friday, lifted by data showing a drop in U.S. crude inventories and recent announcements by Saudi Arabia and Russia about crude output reductions. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for September rose $1.42 or 1.9 percent at 77.07 a barrel. WTI Crude futures gained 2.3 percent in the week.