South Korea Shares Tipped To Bounce Higher Again On Friday

(RTTNews) - The South Korea stock market headed south again on Thursday, one day after snapping the two-day slide in which it had given up almost 170 points or 4.1 percent. The KOSPI now sits just beneath the 4,000-point plateau although it's likely to reclaim that mark when it opens on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat on renewed optimism over the outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets were up and the Asian bourses figure to follow that lead.

The KOSPI finished sharply lower on Thursday following losses from the financial shares, technology stocks, chemicals and automobile producers.

For the day, the index tumbled 61.90 points or 1.53 percent to finish at 3,994.51 after trading between 3,975.50 and 4,030.65. Volume was 576 million shares worth 12.8 trillion won. There were 685 decliners and 195 gainers.

Among the actives, Shinhan Financial dipped 0.26 percent, while KB Financial slid 0.24 percent, Hana Financial skidded 1.19 percent, Samsung Electronics fell 0.28 percent, Samsung SDI stumbled 3.96 percent, LG Electronics tanked 3.43 percent, SK Hynix perked 0.18 percent, Naver eased 0.22 percent, LG Chem plummeted 8.52 percent, Lotte Chemical cratered 8.11 percent, SK Innovation plunged 5.16 percent, POSCO Holdings surrendered 3.35 percent, KEPCO crashed 5.86 percent, Hyundai Mobis dropped 2.76 percent, Hyundai Motor slumped 1.22 percent, Kia Motors sank 0.91 percent and SK Telecom was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is positive as the major averages opened higher on Friday and remained in the green throughout the trading day, albeit off of session highs.

The Dow added 65.88 points or 0.14 percent to finish at 47,951.85, while the NASDAQ jumped 313.04 points or 1.38 percent to end at 23,006.36 and the S&P 500 gained 53.33 points or 0.79 percent to close at 6,774.76.

The strength on Wall Street came following the release of a closely watched Labor Department unexpectedly showing a slowdown in the annual rate of consumer price growth.

The tamer-than-expected inflation data has led to renewed confidence that the Federal Reserve will continue cutting interest rates next year.

A separate report from the Labor Department showed first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits declined roughly in line with estimates last week.

Crude oil prices inched higher again on Thursday amid the lingering geopolitical concerns stemming from Venezuela and Russia. West Texas Intermediate crude for January delivery was up $0.13 or 0.2 percent at $56.07 a barrel.