SEOUL: The South Korea stock market on Thursday ended the two-day slide in which it had fallen more than a dozen points or 0.6 percent. The KOSPI remains just above the 2,065-point plateau, and the market may add to its winnings on Friday. The global forecast for the Asian markets is positive thanks to solid economic data and a rebound in the price of crude oil. The European and U.S. markets were up and the Asian bourses figure to follow suit.
The KOSPI finished barely higher on Thursday as gains from the financials and oil companies were offset by weakness from the technology stocks and automobile producers. Among the actives, Shinhan Financial jumped 1.30 percent, while Woori Bank spiked 1.47 percent, POSCO spiked 1.31 percent, S-Oil added 0.37 percent, Samsung Electronics was unchanged, SK hynix skidded 3.48 percent, Naver lost 1.01 percent, Hyundai Motor shed 0.72 percent and Kia Motors fell 0.82 percent. The lead from Wall Street is upbeat as stocks moved higher on Thursday after showing a lack of direction in the past few sessions.
The Dow added 118.06 points or 0.6 percent to 20,172.40, while the NASDAQ gained 32.73 points or 0.6 percent to 5,715.18 and the S&P rose 13.20 points or 0.6 percent to 2,307.87. Support followed comments from President Donald Trump, who pledged to lower the tax burden on American business in the next few weeks. He has previously proposed reducing the corporate income tax rate to 15 or 20 percent from the current rate of 35 percent. Positive sentiment was also generated by a Labor Department report showing a decrease in initial jobless claims in the week ended February 4th. Also, the Commerce Department said that wholesale inventories increased in line with estimates in December. Crude oil futures steadied Thursday after slipping to multi-week lows in the previous session. March oil was up 66 cents or 1.3 percent to settle at $53/bbl on Nymex.
