The South Korea stock market has finished lower in two of three trading days since the end of the five-day winning streak in which it had gathered almost 85 points or 2.5 percent. The KOSPI sits just above the 3,245-point plateau and it may tick higher again on Wednesday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets offers little guidance on a lack of catalysts. The European and U.S. markets were mixed and little changed and the Asian bourses are expected to open in similar fashion.
The KOSPI finished slightly lower on Tuesday as losses from the financials and oil and technology companies were mitigated by support from the automobile producers.
For the day, the index dipped 4.29 points or 0.13 percent to finish at 3,247.83 after trading between 3,242.56 and 3,264.67. Volume was 1.9 billion shares worth 19.1 trillion won. There were 464 decliners and 376 gainers.
Among the actives, Shinhan Financial shed 0.35 percent, while KB Financial eased 0.17 percent, Hana Financial lost 0.42 percent, LG Electronics surrendered 1.61 percent, SK Hynix sank 0.78 percent, LG Chem lost 0.74 percent, Lotte Chemical tanked 2.31 percent, S-Oil retreated 1.46 percent, SK Innovation declined 1.64 percent, POSCO perked 0.44 percent, SK Telecom climbed 1.39 percent, KEPCO plunged 3.13 percent, Hyundai Motor advanced 0.83 percent, Kia Motors jumped 1.67 percent and Samsung Electronics and Naver were unchanged.
The lead from Wall Street is unclear as stocks spent Tuesday's session bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line, finally settling mixed and little changed.
The Dow fell 30.42 points or 0.09 percent to finish at 34,599.82, while the NASDAQ gained 43.19 points or 0.31 percent to end at 13,924.91 and the S&P 500 rose 0.74 points or 0.02 percent to close at 4,227.26.
Despite optimism about economic growth amid the vaccine rollout, investors were reluctant to build up positions ahead of upcoming inflation data and concerns the Federal Reserve may start discussions on tapering its asset buying program.
Inflation data for May is due out on Thursday and may provide some cues on policy from the Federal Reserve - which is scheduled to meet next week.
Crude oil futures spiked on Tuesday on hopes that demand will continue to rise following reports that the Pfizer and AstraZeneca Covid vaccines are effective against the Covid Delta variant. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for July ended up by $0.82 or 1.2 percent at $70.05 a barrel, the highest settlement since October 2018.
Closer to home, South Korea will release final Q1 figures for gross domestic product and May unemployment data later this morning. The previous reading for GDP suggested an increase of 1.2 percent on quarter and a decline of 1.2 percent on year, The jobless rate in April was 3.7 percent.
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