Bargain Hunting May Lift South Korea Shares

(RTTNews) - The South Korea stock market has finished lower in two straight sessions, plunging more than 100 points or 3.9 percent along the way. The KOSPI now rests just above the 2,580-point plateau although it may see mild support on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests little movement ahead of key U.S. unemployment data on Friday. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were mixed and flat and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The KOSPI finished sharply lower on Wednesday with damage across the board, especially among the finance, technology and chemical companies.

For the day, the index plummeted 83.83 points or 3.15 percent to finish at 2,580.80 after trading between 2,578.07 and 2,608.13. Volume was 448.8 million shares worth 11.2 trillion won. There were 859 decliners and just 51 gainers.

Among the actives, Shinhan Financial slumped 2.97 percent, while KB Financial declined 3.91 percent, Hana Financial shed 1.88 percent, Samsung Electronics tanked 3.45 percent, Samsung SDI was down 3.50 percent, LG Electronics fell 1.27 percent, SK Hynix plummeted 8.02 percent, Naver stumbled 4.72 percent, LG Chem surrendered 2.70 percent, Lotte Chemical crashed 5.42 percent, S-Oil plunged 3.70 percent, SK Innovation dropped 1.74 percent, POSCO skidded 3.20 percent, SK Telecom rose 0.18 percent, Hyundai Mobis sank 1.90 percent, Hyundai Motor tumbled 2.11 percent, Kia Motors retreated 1.96 percent and KEPCO was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street offers little clarity as the major averages opened mixed on Wednesday, hugged the line for most of the day and finished mixed and little changed.

The Dow added 38.04 points or 0.09 percent to finish at 40,974.97, while the NASDAQ lost 52.00 points or 0.30 percent to close at 17,084.30 and the S&P 500 dipped 8.86 points or 0.16 percent to end at 5,520.07.

The lackluster performance on Wall Street reflected uncertainty about the near-term outlook for the markets following the substantial volatility seen over the past couple months.

Stocks have shown a substantial rebound or late, but are hampered by lingering concerns about the outlook for the economy.

Oil prices tumbled on Wednesday amid rising concerns about the outlook for demand following reports that OPEC is planning to restore 180,000 barrels per day of voluntary production cuts beginning next month. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for October ended down $1.14 or 1.6 percent at 69.20 a barrel, a nine-month low.

Closer to home, South Korea will release Q2 numbers for gross domestic product later this morning. GDP is expected to slip 0.2 percent on quarter and rise 2.3 percent on year - both unchanged from the previous month.