South Korea Shares Likely To Remain Rangebound

(RTTNews) - The South Korea stock market has finished lower in two of three trading days since the end of the six-day winning streak in which it had rallied almost 120 points or 4.6 percent. The KOSPI now sits just beneath the 2,650-point plateau and it's likely to hold steady in that neighborhood again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests little movement amidst a lack of catalysts. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were mixed and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The KOSPI finished modestly lower on Friday following losses from the technology stocks and automobile companies, while the financials and chemicals were mixed.

For the day, the index shed 21.79 points or 0.82 percent to finish at the daily low of 2,649.78 after peaking at 2,681.45. Volume was 402.1 million shares worth 11.4 trillion won. There were 457 decliners and 414 gainers.

Among the actives, Shinhan Financial retreated 1.40 percent, while KB Financial soared 3.20 percent, Hana Financial fell 0.33 percent, Samsung Electronics sank 0.77 percent, Samsung SDI dropped 0.90 percent, LG Electronics slumped 1.30 percent, SK Hynix rallied 1.60 percent, Naver dipped 0.29 percent, LG Chem eased 0.14 percent, Lotte Chemical skyrocketed 11.16 percent, SK Innovation declined 1.58 percent, POSCO advanced 0.91 percent, SK Telecom surrendered 2.41 percent, KEPCO jumped 2.21 percent, Hyundai Mobis tanked 2.42 percent, Hyundai Motor stumbled 1.74 percent and Kia Motors was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street offers little clarity as the major averages opened slightly higher on Friday but wound up mixed and little changed.

The Dow climbed 137.89 points or 0.33 percent to finish at a record 42,313,00, while the NASDAQ slumped 70.70 points or 0.39 percent to close at 18,119.59 and the S&P 500 dipped 7.20 points or 0.13 percent to end at 5,738.17. For the week, the NASDAQ climbed 1.0 percent and the Dow and S&P both rose 0.6 percent.

The mixed performance on Wall Street came following the release of closely watched readings on U.S. consumer price inflation in August.

The Commerce Department said its personal consumption expenditures price index inched up by 0.1 percent in August after rising 0.2 percent in July. The uptick matched expectations.

Oil futures closed higher on Friday as additional stimulus measures from the Chinese government eased concerns about the outlook for demand. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for November added $0.51 or at $68.18 a barrel.

Closer to home, South Korea will see August numbers for August data for industrial production and retail sales later this morning. In July, industrial production was down 3.6 percent on month and up 5.5 percent on year, while retail sales fell 1.9 percent on month.