KOSPI Poised To Reclaim 3,000-Point Level
(RTTNews) - The South Korea stock market on Monday halted the two-day slide in which it had slumped more than 40 points or 1.3 percent. The KOSPI now rests just shy of the 2,990-point plateau and it may add to its winnings on Tuesday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is cautiously optimistic, supported by oil and technology shares - while concerns over the surging Omicron variant of the coronavirus is likely to cap the upside. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.
The KOSPI finished modestly higher on Monday following gains from the financial shares and industrials, while the technology stocks were mixed.
For the day, the index added 11.12 points or 0.37 percent to finish at 2,988.77. Volume was 429 million shares worth 8.1 trillion won. There were 656 gainers and 187 decliners. Among the actives, Shinhan Financial climbed 1.22 percent, while KB Financial collected 0.55 percent, Hana Financial increased 0.71 percent, Woori Financial perked 0.79 percent, Samsung Electronics rose 0.38 percent, LG Electronics improved 1.09 percent, SK Hynix tumbled 1.91 percent, Naver shed 0.66 percent, Samsung SDI sank 0.76 percent, LG Chem added 0.49 percent, S-Oil rose 0.23 percent, SK Innovation soared 3.98 percent, POSCO spiked 2.00 percent, Samsung Heavy Industries was up 0.18 percent, SK Telecom retreated 1.21 percent, KEPCO advanced 1.13 percent, Hyundai Motor accelerated 0.72 percent, Kia Motors gained 0.49 percent and Lotte Chemical was unchanged.
The lead from Wall Street is upbeat as the major averages opened higher on Monday and generally picked up steam as the session progressed.
The Dow spiked 246.76 points or 0.68 percent to finish at 36,585.06, while the NASDAQ jumped 187.83 points or 1.20 percent to close at 15,832.80 and the S&P 500 gained 30.38 points or 0.64 percent to end at 4,796.56.
The rally on Wall Street came as optimism about growth outweighed concerns about the Omicron variant in several countries, including the U.S.
But activity was somewhat subdued with investors looking ahead to the minutes of the Federal Reserve's December monetary policy meeting later this week.
In economic news, the Commerce Department said U.S. construction spending increased 0.4 percent in November amid strong gains in single-family homebuilding, although outlays on public projects were weak.
Crude oil prices climbed higher on Monday on reports that Libya, one of OPEC's more important oil drillers, will likely lose about 200,000 barrels daily in output over the next week because of a damaged pipeline. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for February ended up by $0.87 or 1.2 percent at $76.08 a barrel.
