The South Korea stock market on Friday halted the three-day winning streak in which it had collected more than 30 points or 1.1 percent. The KOSPI now rests just above the 2,700-point plateau although it figures for see renewed support on Monday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is positive on optimism over the outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets were up and the Asian bourses figure to open in similar fashion.
The KOSPI finished slightly lower on Friday as losses from the technology and chemical companies were mitigated by support from the financial shares and automobile producers.
For the day, the index shed 5.98 points or 0.22 percent to finish at 2,701.69. Volume was 324 million shares worth 8.1 trillion won. There were 429 gainers and 428 decliners.
Among the actives, Shinhan Financial rallied 1.52 percent, while KB Financial collected 0.35 percent, Hana Financial improved 1.20 percent, Industrial Bank of Korea perked 0.14 percent, Samsung Electronics sank 0.77 percent, Samsung SDI declined 1.49 percent, LG Electronics gained 0.61 percent, SK Hynix tumbled 2.93 percent, Naver was up 0.12 percent, LG Chem dipped 0.32 percent, Lotte Chemical dropped 0.84 percent, S-Oil added 0.32 percent, SK Innovation shed 0.75 percent, POSCO stumbled 2.02 percent, SK Telecom strengthened 1.45 percent, KEPCO increased 0.71 percent, Hyundai Mobis rose 0.23 percent, Hyundai Motor accelerated 1.81 percent and Kia Motors jumped 1.56 percent.
The lead from Wall Street is upbeat as the major averages opened higher on Friday and spent the whole day in the green, ending near session highs.
The Dow jumped 462.28 points or 1.14 percent to finish at 41,175.08, while the NASDAQ rallied 258.39 points or 1.47 percent to end at 17,877.79 and the S&P 500 advanced 63.97 points or 1.15 percent to close at 5,634.61.
For the week, the Dow shot up 1.3 percent, the NASDAQ jumped 1.4 percent and the S&P 500 spiked 1.5 percent.
The rebound on Wall Street came as highly anticipated remarks by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell indicated the central bank is prepared to begin lowering interest rates at its next monetary policy meeting in September.
In other U.S. economic news, the Commerce Department noted a substantial increase by new home sales in the U.S. in July.
Following the rebound in the previous session, the price of crude oil showed another strong move to the upside on Friday. West Texas Intermediate crude for October delivery surged $1.82 or 2.5 percent to $74.83 a barrel after jumping $1.08 or 1.5 percent to $73.01 a barrel during Thursdays session. But the price of crude oil fell by 0.9 for the week due to sell-off earlier in the week.