South Korea Stocks May See Profit Taking On Tuesday

(RTTNews) - The South Korea stock market has climbed higher in four straight sessions, advancing more than 130 points or 5.8 percent along the way. The KOSPI now rests just above the 2,350-point plateau although investors may cash in on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to lower on concerns over the outlook for interest rates. 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 sharply higher on Monday following gains from the oil, chemical, technology and industrial stocks.

For the day, the index soared 60.22 points or 2.63 percent to finish at 2,350.19 after trading between 2,312.56 and 2,351.06. Volume was 334.74 million shares worth 6.9 trillion won. There were 799 gainers and 93 decliners.

Among the actives, Shinhan Financial shed 0.62 percent, while KB Financial collected 0.88 percent, Hana Financial fell 0.31 percent, Samsung Electronics gained 2.88 percent, LG Electronics skyrocketed 4.85 percent, SK Hynix accelerated 3.49 percent, Naver exploded for 6.22 percent, LG Chem jumped 5.05 percent, Lotte Chemical soared 3.92 percent, S-Oil strengthened 1.28 percent, SK Innovation rallied 1.33 percent, POSCO climbed 1.05 percent, SK Telecom dipped 0.21 percent, KEPCO added 0.51 percent, Hyundai Mobis improved 1.17 percent, Hyundai Motor spiked 2.82 percent and Kia Motors surged 4.23 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is murky as the major averages opened higher on Monday but faded as the day progressed, eventually ending mixed and little changed.

The Dow dropped 112.96 points or 0.34 percent to finish at 33,517.65, while the NASDAQ gained 66.36 points or 0.63 percent to close at 10,635.65 and the S&P 500 dipped 2.99 points or 0.08 percent to end at 3,892.09.

The tech-heavy NASDAQ was solid after bond yields dropped amid bets the Federal Reserve will slow down the pace of its interest rate hikes in the coming months.

Stocks pared gains after comments from Fed officials that the central bank might raise rates to somewhere above 5 percent.

Crude oil prices climbed higher Monday, gaining for a third straight session amid hopes of increased demand - while a weak dollar also helped to support oil prices. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for February rose $0.86 or 1.2 percent at $74.63 a barrel.

Closer to home, South Korea will provide November figures for its current account later this morning; in October, the current account surplus was $0.883 billion.