FX.co ★ South Korea Bourse May Spin Its Wheels On Wednesday

On Tuesday, the stock market in South Korea had ended a two-day losing streak, falling more than 15 points or 0.6%, putting the KOSPI just above the 2,730-point plateau. However, it is unclear how the market will progress on Wednesday.

Projections for the Asian markets remain uncertain due to the global outlook for interest rates. European markets have seen a rise, whereas the U.S. stocks have shown a mixed and flat performance. It is likely that the Asian markets will follow a similar pattern.

On Tuesday, the KOSPI sharply increased due largely to gains from technology stocks and industrials, while financial results were mixed. The index rallied 57.73 points or 2.16 percent to finish at a daily high of 2,734.36. The total volume of shares was 523 million, valued at 10.9 trillion won, with 582 gainers and 285 decliners.

Key players include: Shinhan Financial which dropped by 0.43 percent, KB Financial rose by 0.27 percent, Hana Financial increased by 0.17 percent, Samsung Electronics surged 4.77 percent, and Samsung SDI dipped 0.68 percent. Other active stocks such as LG Electronics, SK Hynix, Naver, LG Chem, and Lotte Chemical too experienced various degrees of fluctuation.

The U.S. stock market offers little direction as major averages opened higher but ended mixed. The Dow rose by 31.99 points or 0.08 percent, while the NASDAQ decreased by 16.69 points or 0.10 percent, and the S&P 500 grew by 6.96 points or 0.13 percent.

The mild strength in US stocks stems from fresh optimism about the future of interest rates. Despite dovish comments from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and weaker-than-expected job growth in April, concerns about a potential Fed rate hike have mostly eased.

However, this positive trend slowed in the afternoon after Minneapolis Federal Reserve President Neel Kashkari suggested interest rates may need to stay at their current levels for a prolonged period.

The global outlook for oil demand continues to raise concerns as West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for June ended lower by $0.10 at $78.38 a barrel.