The South Korea stock market has alternated between positive and negative finishes through the last four trading days since the end of the five-day winning streak in which it had soared almost 150 points or 6.2 percent. Now at a fresh record closing high, the KOSPI sits just above the 2,770-point plateau although it may see profit taking on Monday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed, thanks to a combination of coronavirus concerns, coronavirus vaccines and expected profit taking. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were mixed but little changed and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.
The KOSPI finished modestly higher on Friday following gains from the financials and mixed results from the technology stocks and industrial issues.
For the day, the index climbed 23.60 points or 0.86 percent to finish at 2,770.06 after trading between 2,754.16 and 2,781.04. Volume was 1.1 billion shares worth 18 trillion won. There were 659 gainers and 192 decliners.
Among the actives, Shinhan Financial collected 0.88 percent, while KB Financial climbed 1.51 percent, Hana Financial jumped 1.83 percent, Samsung Electronics gained 0.69 percent, LG Electronics rose 0.42 percent, SK Hynix dropped 0.86 percent, Samsung SDI shed 0.71 percent, LG Chem skidded 1.10 percent, Lotte Chemical gained 0.72 percent, S-Oil accelerated 1.81 percent, SK Innovation skidded 1.31 percent, POSCO perked 2.76 percent, SK Telecom soared 3.78 percent, Hyundai Motor sank 0.78 percent, Kia Motors eased 0.16 percent and KEPCO was unchanged.
The lead from Wall Street offers little clarity as stocks opened lower on Friday and saw limited movement but managed to finish mixed for the second straight day.
The Dow added 47.07 points or 0.16 percent to finish at 30.046.37, while the NASDAQ fell 27.93 points or 0.23 percent to end at 12,377.87 and the S&P 500 eased 4.64 points or 0.13 percent to close at 3,663.46. For the week, the Dow fell 0.6 percent, the NASDAQ lost 0.7 percent and the S&P was down 1 percent.
The uptick by the Dow was partly due to a strong gain by shares of Disney (DIS), which spiked 13.5 percent after the company forecast strong subscriber growth for Disney+ and announced an increase in the price of the streaming service.
The lower close by the broader NASDAQ and S&P 500 came as lawmakers in Washington remain at an impasse over a new fiscal stimulus bill. The Senate managed to pass a temporary spending bill to prevent a government shutdown, but the lack of a breakthrough on a new relief package has raised concerns among traders.
Selling pressure was relatively subdued, however, as traders also reacted to upbeat news regarding a potential coronavirus vaccine developed by Pfizer (PFE) and BioNTech (BNTX).
Crude oil prices drifted lower on Friday as a surge in coronavirus cases and tighter restrictions on businesses raised concerns about the outlook for energy demand. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for January ended down $0.21 or 0.5 percent at $46.57 a barrel.
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