South Korea Stock Market May Extend Winning Streak

(RTTNews) - The South Korea stock market has moved higher in five straight sessions, rallying more than 575 points or 10 percent on its way to a fresh record closing high. The KOSPI now sits just above the 6,080-point plateau and it's got another positive lead for Thursday's trade.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is positive, riding solely on the strength of technology companies. The European and U.S. markets were up and the Asian bourses are likely to follow that lead.

The KOSPI finished sharply higher again on Wednesday following gains from the chemical, technology and automobile sectors.

For the day, the index spiked 114.22 points or 1.91 percent to finish at 6,083.86 after trading as high as 6,144.71. Volume was 1.39 billion shares worth 33.86 trillion won. There were 446 gainers and 433 decliners.

Among the actives, Shinhan Financial retreated 1.39 percent, while KB Financial collected 0.60 percent, Hana Financial eased 0.08 percent, Samsung Electronics climbed 1.75 percent, Samsung SDI rallied 2.73 percent, LG Electronics dropped 0.89 percent, SK Hynix advanced 1.29 percent, Naver sank 0.78 percent, LG Chem surged 10.56 percent, Lotte Chemical declined 1.31 percent, SK Innovation plunged 4.72 percent, POSCO Holdings jumped 1.75 percent, SK Telecom perked 0.12 percent, KEPCO vaulted 2.39 percent, Hyundai Mobis soared 3.64 percent, Hyundai Motor accelerated 9.16 percent and Kia Motors skyrocketed 12.70 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is firm as the major averages opened higher on Wednesday and remained in the green throughout the trading day, ending at session highs.

The Dow climbed 307.65 points or 0.63 percent to finish at 49,482.15, while the NASDAQ jumped 288.40 points or 1.26 percent to close at 23,152.08 and the S&P 500 gained 56.06 points or 0.81 percent to end at 6,946.13.

The strength on Wall Street reflected optimism ahead of the release of earnings news from AI chipmaker and market leader Nvidia (NVDA) after the close of Wednesday's trade. The company's earnings came in at $42.960 billion, or $1.76 per share compared to $22.091 billion, or $0.89 per share, last year.

Software stocks turned in some of the market's best performances on the day, with the Dow Jones U.S. Software Index spiking by 3.1 percent. The index continued to regain ground after slumping to its lowest closing level in ten months on Monday amid easing AI disruption concerns.

The price of crude oil ticked lower on Wednesday after the Energy Information Administration reported a substantial rebound by U.S. crude oil inventories last week. West Texas Intermediate crude for April delivery slipped $0.15 or 0.2 percent to $65.48 a barrel.

Closer to home, the Bank of Korea will wrap up its monetary policy meeting this morning and then announce its decision on interest rates, highlighting a busy day for Asia-Pacific economic activity. The BoK is expected to keep rates steady at 2.50 percent.