2/19/2012 6:31 PM ET
(RTTNews) - The South Korea has alternated between positive and negative finishes through the last six trading days since the end of the four-day winning streak in which it had collected more than 40 points or 2 percent. The KOSPI finished just above the 2,020-point plateau, and now traders are looking for additional support when the market kicks off trade on Monday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to higher on optimism that European finance ministers will approve a new bailout package for Greece later in the day. Limiting the upside are rising tensions in the Middle East as Iran has discontinued the sale of oil to any British of French companies, in response to the latest round of EU sanctions - although the price of oil is climbing as a result. The European markets were mixed on Friday and the U.S. bourses were mixed, and the Asian markets are expected to split the difference.
The KOSPI finished sharply higher on Friday following gains from the financial shares and technology stocks.
For the day, the index jumped 26.02 points or 1.30 percent to finish at 2,023.47 after trading between 2,019.79 and 2,031.40 on volume of 724.6 million shares. There were 529 gainers and 310 decliners.
Among the gainers, Samsung Electronics jumped 3.61 percent, while Kia Motors surged 4.35 percent, LG Display climbed 3.73 percent, Woori Investment and Securities Co spiked 5.2 percent, Daewoo Securities soared 5.04 percent and Woori Finance Holdings collected 3.36 percent.
The lead from Wall Street is inconclusive as stocks turned in a relatively lackluster performance on Friday after showing a strong upward move in the previous session. Nonetheless, optimism that European finance ministers will approve a new bailout package for Greece on Monday helped to keep traders from doing much profit taking.
The markets largely shrugged off a report from the Labor Department showing that its consumer price index rose by 0.2 percent in January after coming in unchanged in the previous month. Economists had expected an increase of 0.3 percent. Excluding food and energy prices, the core consumer price index also rose by 0.2 percent in January after edging up by 0.1 percent in December - in line with economist estimates.
A separate report from the Conference Board showed that its index of leading economic indicators increased for the fourth consecutive month in January. The leading economic index rose by 0.4 percent in January following a revised 0.5 percent increase in December. Economists had been expecting the index to increase by 0.5 percent compared to the 0.4 percent increase originally reported for the previous month.
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