The South Korea stock market has finished higher in back-to-back trading days, gathering almost 40 points or 2.4 percent along the way. The KOSPI now rests just above the 1,725-point plateau although investors are expected to lock in gains on Monday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is broadly negative thanks to ever-increasing coronavirus concerns and an expected tumble in crude oil prices. The European and U.S. markets were down on Friday and the Asian markets figure to follow suit.
The KOSPI finished barely higher following a mixed performance from the technology stocks and mixed performances from the financials and oil companies.
For the day, the index rose 0.58 points or 0.03 percent to finish at 1,725.44 after trading between 1,706.68 and 1,743.91. Volume was 986 million shares worth 1 trillion won. There were 506 gainers and 328 decliners.
Among the actives, Shinhan Financial lost 0.75 percent, while KB Financial tumbled 1.74 percent, Hana Financial fell 0.67 percent, Samsung Electronics gained 0.43 percent, Samsung SDI was down 0.64 percent, LG Electronics climbed 1.12 percent, LG Display plunged 2.29 percent, SK Hynix shed 0.50 percent, POSCO perked 0.64 percent, SK Telecom added 0.55 percent, KEPCO slid 0.52 percent, Hyundai Motors dipped 0.35 percent, Kia Motors skidded 1.55 percent, S-Oil plunged 4.85 percent and SK Innovation declined 0.77 percent.
The lead from Wall Street is weak as stocks opened lower on Friday and moved deeper into negative territory as the day progressed.
The Dow shed 360.91 points or 1.69 percent to finish at 21,052.53, while the NASDAQ lost 114.23 points or 1.53 percent to 7,373.08 and the S&P 500 fell 38.25 points or 1.51 percent to 2,488.65. For the week, the Dow lost 2.7 percent, the NASDAQ fell 1.7 percent and the S&P sank 2.1 percent.
The weakness on Wall Street came after a Labor Department report showed that employment in the U.S. fell much more than expected in March - sending the jobless rate up to 4.4 percent from 3.5 percent in February.
Crude oil prices rose sharply on Friday, climbing for a second straight day on rising hopes of deep production cuts by major oil producers. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for May ended up $3.02 or 12 percent at $28.34 a barrel.
OPEC was supposed to meet today in a conference that would have included Russia and Saudi Arabia, who are at the center of the current production dispute. But the meeting was postponed by rising tensions between the two, setting up crude for heavy losses today.
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