South Korea Shares May Be Stuck In Neutral

(RTTNews) - The South Korea stock market has moved higher in back-to-back sessions, advancing almost 80 points or 2.7 percent along the way. The KOSPI now sits just shy of the 3,200-point plateau although the rally may stall on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is weak on renewed tariff concerns. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The KOSPI finished sharply higher on Tuesday following gains from the financial shares and technology stocks, while the chemical and automobile companies were mixed.

For the day, the index rallied 50.25 points or 1.61 percent to finish at 3,198.00. Volume was 270.8 million shares worth 10.9 trillion won. There were 684 gainers and 190 decliners.

Among the actives, Shinhan Financial spiked 3.19 percent, while KB Financial rallied 3.69 percent, Hana Financial collected 2.55 percent, Samsung Electronics rose 0.29 percent, Samsung SDI skyrocketed 10.22 percent, LG Electronics climbed 1.06 percent, SK Hynix jumped 2.13 percent, Naver eased 0.22 percent, LG Chem improved 3.14 percent, Lotte Chemical fell 0.31 percent, SK Innovation soared 3.00 percent, POSCO Holdings increased 2.76 percent, SK Telecom added 0.53 percent, KEPCO strengthened 2.15 percent, Hyundai Mobis was up 0.35 percent, Hyundai Motor slipped 0.24 percent and Kia Motors slumped 1.36 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened slightly higher on Tuesday but quickly turned lower and spent the balance of the day in the red, closing near session lows.

The Dow slipped 61.90 points or 0.14 percent to finish at 44,111.74, while the NASDAQ sank 137.03 points or 0.65 percent to end at 20,916.55 and the S&P 500 dropped 30.75 points or 0.49 percent to close at 6,299.19.

The weakness that emerged on Wall Street reflected ongoing trade concerns after President Donald Trump said he will be announcing new tariffs on semiconductors and chips as soon as next week. Trump said planned tariffs on pharmaceuticals imported into the U.S. could reach as high as 250 percent.

Negative sentiment was also have been generated by a report from the Institute for Supply Management that unexpectedly showed a modest slowdown in the pace of growth by U.S. service sector activity in the month of July.

Early in the session, stocks benefitted from a positive reaction to some of the latest earnings news, including upbeat quarterly results from software company Palantir (PLTR).

Crude oil prices fell on Tuesday amid US pressure on India to stop buying oil from Russia, as well as OPEC's recent decision to boost production. West Texas Intermediate crude for September delivery slumped $1.05 or 1.58 percent to $65.24 per barrel.