Rally May Stall For South Korea Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The South Korea stock market has moved higher in back-to-back sessions, collecting more than 60 points or 2.3 percent along the way. The KOSPI now rests just above the 2,720-points plateau, although it may run out of steam on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is negative as Friday's U.S. jobs report fueled uncertainty about the outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets saw modest losses and the Asian bourses figure to follow suit.

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

For the day, the index jumped 33.17 points or 1.23 percent to finish at 2,722.67. Volume was 771.8 million shares worth 12.2 trillion won. There were 460 gainers and 400 decliners.

Among the actives, Shinhan Financial spiked 3.40 percent, while KB Financial collected 2.84 percent, Hana Financial collected 1.17 percent, Samsung Electronics eased 0.13 percent, Samsung SDI jumped 1.92 percent, SK Hynix skyrocketed 7.12 percent, Naver dropped 0.96 percent, LG Chem rallied 2.00 percent, Lotte Chemical tumbled 1.93 percent, S-Oil dipped 0.15 percent, SK Innovation perked 0.19 percent, POSCO strengthened 1.44 percent, SK Telecom improved 0.78 percent, KEPCO sank 0.79 percent, Hyundai Mobis added 0.45 percent, Hyundai Motor rose 0.38 percent, Kia Motors accelerated 1.34 percent and LG Electronics was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened lower on Friday, bounced higher at midday but faded going into the close to end with mild losses.

The Dow shed 87.21 points or 0.22 percent to finish at 38,798.99, while the NASDAQ sank 39.97 points or 0.23 percent to close at 17,133.12 and the S&P 500 fell 5.97 points or 0.11 percent to end at 5,346.99.

For the week, the NASDAQ surged 2.4 percent, the S&P jumped 1.3 percent and the Dow rose 0.3 percent.

The choppy trading on Wall Street came as traders reacted to the Labor Department's closely watched monthly jobs report, which showed employment jumped more than expected in May but also saw an unexpected uptick in the unemployment rate.

Oil futures settled flat on Friday on concerns the Federal Reserve may hold interest rates higher for longer following the stronger than expected U.S. non-farm payroll report for May. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for July ended at $75.53 a barrel, down $0.02. WTI crude futures shed about 2 percent in the week.