Tech Shares May Drag South Korea Stocks Lower

(RTTNews) - The South Korea stock market on Tuesday ended the two-day winning streak in which it had picked up almost 20 points or 0.7 percent. The KOSPI now rests just shy of the 2,665-point plateau and the losses may accelerate on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is broadly negative on concerns over the global economy. The European and U.S. markets were sharply lower and the Asian bourses are tipped to follow suit.

The KOSPI finished modestly lower on Tuesday following losses from the industrials and technology stocks and mixed performances from the financial shares and chemicals.

For the day, the index shed 16.37 points or 0.61 percent to finish at the daily low of 2,664.63 after peaking at 2,695.59. Volume was 291 million shares worth 8.8 trillion won. There were 458 gainers and 416 decliners.

Among the actives, Shinhan Financial rallied 1.60 percent, while KB Financial sank 0.80 percent, Hana Financial collected 0.79 percent, Samsung Electronics tanked 2.55 percent, Samsung SDI added 0.54 percent, LG Electronics gained 0.39 percent, SK Hynix plunged 3.28 percent, Naver dropped 0.78 percent, LG Chem slumped 2.06 percent, Lotte Chemical accelerated 2.79 percent, SK Innovation retreated 1.36 percent, POSCO fell 0.28 percent, SK Telecom spiked 2.36 percent, KEPCO jumped 1.87 percent, Hyundai Mobis declined 1.40 percent, Hyundai Motor surrendered 3.46 percent, Kia Motors stumbled 3.68 percent and S-Oil was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is brutal as the major averages opened firmly in the red and only got worse as the day progressed.

The Dow plunged 626.15 points or 1.51 percent to finish at 40,836.93, while the NASDAQ plummeted 577.33 points or 3.26 percent to close at 17,136.30 and the S&P 500 tumbled 119.47 points or 2.12 percent to end at 5,528.93.

The sell-off on Wall Street came after the Institute for Supply Management noted continued decline by U.S. manufacturing activity in August. A separate report from the Commerce Department unexpectedly showed a modest decrease by U.S. construction spending in July.

The weakness on Wall Street also came as some traders look to cash in on the previous session's gains amid lingering uncertainty about the outlook for interest rates.

The Federal Reserve is almost universally expected to lower rates at its next meeting later this month, but there is some disagreement about the pace of rate cuts. According to CME Group's FedWatch Tool, there is a 63.0 percent chance of a quarter-point rate cut later this month and a 37.0 percent chance of a half-point rate cut.

Oil prices fell sharply to a nine-month low on Tuesday on prospects of oversupply from OPEC weighed on oil prices. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for October ended down by $3.21 or 4.4 percent at $70.34 a barrel.