Additional Support Anticipated For South Korea Bourse

The South Korea stock market rebounded on Friday, one session after it had ended the three-day winning streak in which it had advanced more than 150 points or 5 percent. The KOSPI now sits just above the 3,120-point plateau and it’s expected to extend its gains on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat on good economic data, solid earnings news and an uptick in the price of crude oil. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The KOSPI finished sharply higher on Friday following gains from the financial shares, technology stocks, automobile producers and chemical companies.

For the day, the index climbed 33.08 points or 1.07 percent to finish at 3,120.63 after trading between 3,081.78 and 3,124.62. Volume was 1.2 billion shares worth 19.4 trillion won. There were 504 gainers and 339 decliners.

Among the actives, Shinhan Financial collected 1.44 percent, while KB Financial soared 5.47 percent, Hana Financial surged 6.48 percent, Samsung Electronics climbed 1.21 percent, LG Electronics rose 0.32 percent, SK Hynix jumped 2.00 percent, Samsung SDI rallied 3.75 percent, LG Chem spiked 2.80 percent, Lotte Chemical skyrocketed 5.19 percent, S-Oil gathered 1.36 percent, SK Innovation plunged 4.10 percent, POSCO lost 0.57 percent, SK Telecom accelerated 4.66 percent, KEPCO shed 0.42 percent, Hyundai Motor added 0.40 percent and Kia Motors gained 3.47 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is solid as stocks opened higher on Friday and largely remained that way, extending recent gains.

The Dow added 92.38 points or 0.30 percent to finish at 31,148.24, while the NASDAQ gained 78.55 points or 0.57 percent to end at 13,856.30 and the S&P 500 rose 15.09 points or 0.39 percent to close at 3,886.83. For the week, the Dow added 3.9 percent, the NASDAQ surged 6 percent and the S&P spiked 4.6 percent.

The continued strength on Wall Street came after the Labor Department reported a modest rebound in employment in January.

Traders may see the uptick in employment as a goldilocks situation as the modest increase offsets concerns of a prolonged slump but also suggests the economy could benefit from more fiscal stimulus.

The markets continued to benefit from upbeat news on the earnings front, with Ford (F), Estée Lauder (EL), Activision Blizzard (ATVI) and Gilead Sciences (GILD) all moving higher after reporting their quarterly results.

Crude oil prices moved higher on Friday on hopes energy demand will increase as the vaccination drive picks up momentum, and on output cuts by the oil cartel. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for March ended higher by $0.62 or 1.1 percent at $56.85 a barrel.