South Korea Shares May Tick Lower Again On Friday

(RTTNews) - The South Korea stock market has moved lower in consecutive trading days, slipping more than 10 points or 0.5 percent along the way. The KOSPI settled just above the 1,985-point plateau, and the market is looking at continued consolidation again on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft, thanks to falling crude oil prices and concerns over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were mixed but little changed, and the Asian markets are expected to split the difference.

The KOSPI finished modestly lower on Thursday as losses from the automobile producers and industrials were tempered by support from the technology stocks.

For the day, the index dipped 9.15 points or 0.46 percent to finish at 1,985.97 after trading between 1,981.17 and 1,992.76 on volume of 336.2 million shares. There were 510 decliners and 289 gainers.

Among the actives, Samsung Electronics gained 0.23 percent, while Hyundai Motor dropped 1.58 percent, AmorePacific jumped 1.70 percent, LG Chem advanced 2.74 percent and POSCO skidded 2.56 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as stocks opened in the red on Thursday before rebounding to end flat in the last day of the holiday-shortened week.

The S&P 500 eased 0.77 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 2,035.94, while the Dow crept up 13.14 points or 0.1 percent to 17,515.73 and the NASDAQ inched up 4.64 points or 0.1 percent to 4,773.50. For the week, the S&P 500 slid 0.7 percent, while the Dow and the NASDAQ both fell 0.5 percent.

Profit taking contributed to the initial weakness, along with concerns about the outlook for interest rates following comments from St. Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard.

Bullard said the relatively minor downgrades to the Fed's economic outlook suggest the next rate hike "may not be far off provided that the economy evolves as expected."

A decrease by the price of crude oil also weighed on the markets in early trading, although a rebound contributed to the subsequent recovery by the markets.

On the economic front, the Labor Department noted a modest increase in initial jobless claims in the week ended March 19. A separate report from the Commerce Department showed a pullback in durable goods orders in February.

Closer to home, South Korea will see final GDP figures for the fourth quarter of 2015 this morning. January's preliminary reading suggested an increase of 0.6 percent on quarter and 3.0 percent on year. That follows the 1.3 percent quarterly increase and the 2.7 percent yearly gain in the three months prior.