KOSPI May Reverse Thursday's Losses

(RTTNews) - The South Korea stock market on Thursday wrote a finish to the four-day winning streak in which it had skyrocketed more than 1,000 points or 12.3 percent to a fresh record closing high. The KOSPI now sits just above the 8,180-point plateau although it's expected to bounce higher again on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is cautiously optimistic on hopes for an end to the U.S.-Iran war. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The KOSPI finished modestly lower on Thursday following losses from the financials and automobile producers, gains from the chemicals and a mixed picture from the technology stocks.

For the day, the index shed fell 43.41 points or 0.53 percent to finish at 8,185.29 after trading between 7,841.01 and 8,253.60. Volume was 664.5 million shares worth 52.1 trillion won. There were 676 decliners and 213 gainers.

Among the actives, Shinhan Financial contracted 2.32 percent, while KB Financial surrendered 2.67 percent, Hana Financial tanked 2.62 percent, Samsung Electronics tumbled 2.44 percent, Samsung SDI surged 7.30 percent, LG Electronics plunged 4.04 percent, SK Hynix rallied 2.05 percent, Naver spiked 3.12 percent, LG Chem surged 4.08 percent, Lotte Chemical rose 0.37 percent, SK Innovation vaulted 1.39 percent, POSCO Holdings sank 0.83 percent, SK Telecom stumbled 2.68 percent, KEPCO skidded 1.14 percent, Hyundai Mobis fell 0.29 percent, Hyundai Motor dipped 0.22 percent and Kia Motors lost 0.24 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is upbeat as the major averages opened lower on Thursday but quickly moved to the upside to finish with varying degrees of gains to close at fresh record highs.

The Dow added 24.69 points or 0.05 percent to finish at 50,668.97, while the NASDAQ jumped 242.74 points or 0.91 percent to end at 26,917.47 and the S&P 500 gained 43.27 points or 0.58 percent to close at 7,563.63.

The turnaround on Wall Street came after a report from Axios said U.S. and Iranian negotiators have reached an agreement on a 60-day memorandum of understanding.

Crude oil prices handed back most of their early gains on Thursday after reports of the understanding between the U.S. and Iran. After surging as much as $3.84 or 4.3 percent to a high of $92.52 a barrel, crude for July delivery ended up $0.32 or 0.4 percent at $89 a barrel.

In U.S. economic news, the Commerce Department said consumer prices in the U.S. increased slightly less than expected in April.

Closer to home, South Korea will provide April figures for industrial production and retail sales later this morning. In March, production was up 0.3 percent on month and 3.6 percent on year, while sales rose 1.8 percent on month.