2/20/2012 6:31 PM ET
(RTTNews) - The South Korea stock market has closed higher now in back-to-back sessions, rising more than 25 points or 1.2 percent along the way. The KOSPI finished just below the 2,025-point plateau, and now analysts are forecasting limited upside at the opening of trade on Tuesday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is more of the same on Tuesday in what could be a quiet session that is devoid of leads from Wall Street, which was closed in observance of President's Day. After posting mostly solid gains on Monday, the Asian markets get a positive lead from Europe and are expected to continue to trend to the upside, although profit taking may pare the upside later in the session.
The KOSPI finished barely higher on Monday as gains from the shipbuilders were wiped out by profit taking among the financial shares and technology stocks.
For the day, the index added 1.43 points or 0.07 percent to finish at 2,024.90 after trading between 2,024.59 and 2,047.43. Volume was 723 million shares worth 5.96 trillion won. There were 464 gainers and 372 decliners.
Among the actives, Hyundai Heavy Industries climbed 1.09 percent and POSCO jumped 0.73 percent, while Industrial Bank of Korea plunged 3.33 percent, Hana Financial Group eased 0.24 percent, Korea Exchange Bank shed 0.61 percent and Samsung Electronics fell 0.09 percent.
With the U.S. markets closed on Monday, the European markets offer a positive lead as the European Union downplayed Iran's stoppage of oil exports to its member-states by saying that the 27-nation bloc is self-sufficient to meet its oil demands.
Last month, an EU Foreign Affairs Council meeting had banned imports of Iranian crude oil and petroleum products from July 1 in a bid to force Iran to agree to halt its nuclear program.
European Commission spokesperson on energy Marlene Holzner said on Monday that if there were no other importers to replace Iran, EU oil stocks would suffice for a long period of time because Iranian supplies accounted for only 5.8 percent of Europe's total crude imports.
In European economic news, consumer confidence in Belgium dropped for the second consecutive month to its lowest level nearly three years in February, falling to -20 from January's -16. The latest score is the lowest since April 2009. The drop in the indicator is mainly the consequence of greatly increased pessimism on the part of consumers with regard to the unemployment outlook, the bank said. The corresponding index jumped to 47 from 34.
The European markets were broadly higher on Monday with Germany's DAX rising 1.46 percent, while the CAC in France jumped 0.96 percent, Sweden climbed 0.99 percent, London's FTSE collected 0.68 percent and the Swiss market was barely in the green, up 0.08 percent.
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