The South Korea stock market has tracked lower in three straight sessions, slumping more than 70 points or 2.4 percent along the way. The KOSPI now sits just beneath the 2,800-point plateau and it\'s expected to open under water again on Monday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is negative, with oil and technology shares likely to lead the way lower. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian bourses figure to follow that lead.
The KOSPI finished sharply lower on Friday following losses from the oil companies and the automobile producers, while the financials and technology stocks were mixed.
For the day, the index skidded 28.89 points or 1.02 percent to finish at 2,795.46 after trading between 2,776.99 and 2,802.68. Volume was 417.9 million shares worth 9.4 trillion won. There were 574 decliners and 302 gainers.
Among the actives, Shinhan Financial stumbled 1.66 percent, while KB Financial collected 0.47 percent, Hana Financial rallied 1.46 percent, Samsung Electronics tanked 2.88 percent, Samsung SDI gained 0.70 percent, LG Electronics advanced 0.81 percent, SK Hynix retreated 1.41 percent, Naver slumped 1.54 percent, Lotte Chemical declined 1.60 percent, S-Oil shed 0.58 percent, SK Innovation plunged 3.36 percent, POSCO climbed 1.09 percent, KEPCO added 0.56 percent, Hyundai Mobis dipped 0.22 percent, Hyundai Motor sank 0.77 percent, Kia Motors plummeted 3.00 percent and SK Telecom and LG Chem were unchanged.
The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened mixed but quickly turned lower and spent the rest of the day solidly in the red.
The Dow tumbled 377.49 points or 0.93 percent to finish at 40,287.53, while the NASDAQ sank 144.28 points or 0.81 percent to end at 17,726.94 and the S&P 500 lost 39.59 points or 0.71 percent to close at 5,505.00.
For the week, the NASDAQ plunged 3.7 percent and the S&P 500 tumbled 2.0 percent, but the Dow rose 0.7 percent.
With concerns about the outlook for tech stocks recently weighing on Wall Street, negative sentiment may have been generated by a major IT outage.
The operations of major banks, media outlets, hospitals and airlines worldwide were affected due to the widespread outage, which was purportedly caused by an update by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike (CRWD).
Oil prices fell to a four-week low on Friday amid concerns about the outlook for demand from China and on renewed hopes of a ceasefire in Gaza, while a firm dollar also weighed on oil prices. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for August sank $2.69 or 3.25 percent at $80.13 a barrel, the lowest settlement since June 17.