Rally May Stall For South Korea Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The South Korea stock market has finished higher in back-to-back sessions, gathering more than 15 points or 0.7 percent along the way. The KOSPI now rests just above the 2,100-point plateau, although the market may run out of steam on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is weak, thanks to concerns over the outlook for interest rates and a decline in the price of crude oil. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian bourses are expected to follow suit.

The KOSPI finished modestly higher on Thursday as gains from the technology stocks and financial shares were tempered by weakness from the automobile producers.

For the day, the index gained 11.01 points or 0.53 percent to finish at 2,102.65 after trading between 2,096.31 and 2,112.58. Volume was 421.59 million shares worth 6.01 trillion won. There were 492 decliners and 317 gainers.

Among the actives, Samsung Electronics spiked 3.33 percent, while LG Electronics soared 3.01 percent, SK hynix advanced 2.14 percent, POSCO perked 2.82 percent, Naver surged 5.03 percent, Hyundai Motor shed 0.67 percent, Kia Motors skidded 3.01 percent, Hyundai Mobis tumbled 1.76 percent, Shinhan Financial collected 0.75 percent and Woori Bank climbed 1.88 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as stocks moved lower on Thursday after moving sharply higher in the previous session.

The Dow fell 112.58 points or 0.5 percent to 21,002.97, while the NASDAQ slid 42.81 points or 0.7 percent to 5,861.22 and the S&P lost 14.04 points or 0.6 percent to 2,381.92.

Traders reacted to the likelihood that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates at this month's monetary policy meeting. CME Group's FedWatch tool is now showing a 77.5 percent probability of quarter point rate hike, up from 66.4 percent yesterday.

Potentially adding to rate hike expectations, the Labor Department said that initial jobless claims fell to their lowest level in over 40 years in the week ended February 25.

Crude oil prices continued to fall Thursday, stung by a stronger dollar and surging U.S. inventories. April WTI oil settled at $52.61/bbl, down $1.22 or 2.3 percent.

Closer to home, South Korea will release February numbers for consumer prices and January data for current account later this morning.

In January, overall inflation was up 0.9 percent on month and 2.0 percent on year, while core CPI added 0.6 percent on month and 1.5 percent on year. The current account surplus in December was $7.87 billion.