The South Korea stock market has finished higher in seven straight sessions, spiking more than 185 points or 7.5 percent along the way. Now at a two-year closing high, the KOSPI now rests just above the 2,450-point plateau although investors figure to cash in on Wednesday.
The global forecast is cloudy, with continued optimism for a Covid-19 vaccination likely countered by profit taking following recent rallies. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were mixed and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.
The KOSPI finished slightly higher on Tuesday as gains from the financial shares and oil companies were mitigated by profit taking from the chemical stocks and a mixed picture from the technology stocks.
For the day, the index picked up 5.63 points or 0.23 percent to finish at 2,452.83 after trading between 2,435.59 and 2,457.94. Volume was 1.4 billion shares worth 17.7 trillion won. There were 546 gainers and 297 decliners.
Among the actives, Shinhan Financial collected 3.78 percent, while KB Financial soared 4.07 percent, Hana Financial surged 5.76 percent, LG Electronics dropped 1.60 percent, SK Hynix added 0.58 percent, LG Chem plunged 4.36 percent, Lotte Chemical tumbled 1.83 percent, S-Oil skyrocketed 14.68 percent, SK Innovation jumped 1.91 percent, POSCO perked 1.28 percent, SK Telecom gathered 0.67 percent, KEPCO climbed 1.22 percent, Hyundai Motor gained 0.58 percent, Kia Motors rallied 4.21 percent and Samsung Electronics and Samsung SDI were unchanged.
The lead from Wall Street in inconsistent as the Dow opened higher on Tuesday and remained in the green - but the NASDAQ and S&P 500 spent most of the day in negative territory.
The Dow jumped 262.95 points or 0.90 percent to finish at 29,420, while the NASDAQ plunged 159.93 points or 1.37 percent to end at 11,553.86 and the S&P 500 fell 4.97 points or 0.14 percent to close at 3,545.53.
The mixed performance on Wall Street came as traders continued to cycle out of tech stocks that benefited from the coronavirus pandemic, such as Zoom (ZM) and Amazon (AMZN).
The shift comes as upbeat news about a vaccine being developed by Pfizer (PFE) and BioNTech (BNTX) has generated optimism that business may return to normal next year. However, there could be more pain between now and then, as coronavirus cases in the U.S. continue to spike and have now topped 10 million.
Traders are also keeping an eye on developments in Washington as President Donald Trump continues to refuse to concede to President-elect Joe Biden.
Crude oil futures ended sharply higher Tuesday, extending gains from the previous session as optimism over a potential coronavirus vaccine continued to outweigh worries about the energy demand outlook. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for December ended up $1.07 or 2.7 percent at $41.36 a barrel.
Closer to home, South Korea will release October figures for unemployment later this morning, with forecasts calling for the jobless rate to fall to 3.6 percent from 3.9 percent in September.
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