Profit Taking Expected For South Korea Shares

(RTTNews) - The South Korea stock market has moved higher in three straight sessions, collecting almost 220 points or 3.4 percent in that span. Now at a fresh record closing high, the KOSPI sits just above the 6,690-point plateau although it's overdue for consolidation on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft on surging oil prices and uncertainty about the conflict in the Middle East. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were mixed and little changed and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The KOSPI finished modestly higher on Wednesday following gains from the financial shares, chemical companies and industrials, while the technology stocks were mixed.

For the day, the index improved 49.88 points or 0.75 percent to finish at a fresh record high of 6,690.90 after trading between 6,596.03 and 6,702.38. Volume was 712.3 million shares worth 31 trillion won. There were 478 gainers and 362 decliners.

Among the actives, Shinhan Financial collected 0.85 percent, while KB Financial climbed 1.13 percent, Hana Financial perked 0.08 percent, Samsung Electronics jumped 1.80 percent, Samsung SDI soared 4.71 percent, LG Electronics tumbled 3.00 percent, SK Hynix shed 0.54 percent, Naver rose 0.23 percent, LG Chem spiked 3.43 percent, Lotte Chemical skyrocketed 24.87 percent, SK Innovation surged 12.63 percent, POSCO Holdings added 0.54 percent, SK Telecom slumped 1.24 percent, KEPCO fell 0.45 percent, Hyundai Mobis stumbled 1.79 percent, Hyundai Motor was up 0.18 percent and Kia Motors gained 0.84 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is uninspired as the major averages opened lower on Wednesday and hugged the line for most of the day, finally ending mixed.

The Dow dropped 280.12 points or 0.57 percent to finish at 48,861.81, while the NASDAQ perked 9.44 points or 0.04 percent to close at 24,673.24 and the S&P 500 eased 2.85 points or 0.04 percent to end at 7,135.95.

The lackluster performance on Wall Street came as traders were reluctant to make significant moves ahead of the release of earnings news after the close from big-name tech companies such as Alphabet (GOOGL), Amazon (AMZN), Meta Platforms (META) and Microsoft (MSFT).

Traders also kept an eye on the Federal Reserve's latest monetary policy announcement, with the central bank announcing its widely expected decision to leave interest rates unchanged in an unusually divided vote.

Crude oil prices surged again on Wednesday as an end to the Middle East war still remains elusive, keeping the blockade on the Strait of Hormuz in place. West Texas Intermediate crude for June delivery was up $6.79 or 6.79 percent at $106.72 per barrel.

Closer to home, South Korea will provide March figures for industrial production and retail sales later this morning; in February, production was up 5.4 percent on month and down 2.2 percent on year, while sales were flat on a monthly basis.