Oversold KOSPI May Rebound On Wednesday

(RTTNews) - The South Korea stock market on Tuesday halted the two-day winning streak in which it had rallied more than 210 points or 3.6 percent. The KOSPI now sits just above the 5,550-point plateau

The global forecast for the Asian markets is flat to slightly higher, thanks to a dip in oil prices. The European markets were slightly lower and the U.S. bourses were mostly higher and the Asian markets figure to follow with mild upside.

The KOSPI finished sharply lower on Tuesday with damage across the board, especially among the transportation, chemical, technology and financial sectors.

For the day, the index tumbled 215.27 points or 3.73 percent to finish 5,552.74 after falling as low as 5,493.24. Volume was 259.75 million shares worth 16 trillion won. There were 771 decliners and 117 gainers.

The lead from Wall Street is cautiously optimistic as the major averages opened mixed on Tuesday and generally trended higher before finishing mixed.

The Dow jumped 529.85 points or 1.02 percent to finish at 52,495.88, while the NASDAQ eased 6.07 points or 0.02 percent to close at 26,424.82 and the S&P 500 added 21.84 points or 0.28 percent to end at 7,712.57.

The advance by the Dow partly reflected a sharp increase by shares of 3M (MMM) after the Scotch-tape and Post-it maker reported better than expected third quarter earnings and raised its full-year profit forecast.

Dow components Amgen (AMGN), Merck (MRK) and UnitedHealth (UNH) also posted significant gains on the day.

Buying interest was also generated by a drop in the price of crude oil on reports that Qatar and Pakistan are pushing for a peace deal between the U.S. and Iran. West Texas Intermediate crude for November delivery was down $1.76 or 1.82 percent at $101.84 per barrel.