FX.co ★ South Korea Stock Market May Reverse Wednesday's Losses

The South Korean stock market took a downward turn Wednesday, continuing its trend of modest losses after a two-day downturn had resulted in a loss of more than 15 points, or 0.4%. The KOSPI (Korea Composite Stock Price Index) currently sits just above the 2,755-point threshold but there are expectations of a potential bounce back on Thursday.

Growing optimism surrounding the future of interest rates has provided a positive global forecast for Asian markets. Both European and U.S. markets have seen gains and it's predicted that Asian markets will follow this positive trend.

The KOSPI's decrease on Wednesday was a result of losses from the finance and chemicals sectors. Technology stocks showed improvement and industry stocks showed a mix of gains and losses.

For the day, the index fell by 1.98 points or 0.07% to close at 2,755.11, trading between 2,745.00 and 2,762.03. Including a volume of 482.5 million shares valued at 11.3 trillion won with 499 declining and 367 gaining.

Trajectory among active stocks included impairment for financial powerhouses, such as Shinhan Financial (down by 5.53%) and KB Financial (plummeting by 3.90%). Electronics giants like Samsung barely budged with a marginal 0.13% decrease, while Samsung SDI saw a rise of 1.59%. LG Electronics and Naver also saw subtle gains at 0.21%.

The Wall Street outlook is positive with major averages demonstrating strong opening positions on Wednesday, which largely sustained throughout the day.

Wall Street's success has been attributed, in part, to investors seeking to buy stocks at lower costs after the previous day's mediocre performance.

Meanwhile, forecasts of three rate cuts this year persist, despite the Federal Reserve leaving interest rates unchanged last week. In that vein, a decrease in treasury yields fueled market strength, further adding to the positive outlook of interest rates.

Crude oil prices, however, took a hit after data revealed an unexpected increase in U.S. crude and gasoline inventories last week. As such, West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for May ended lower by $0.27 or 0.33% at $81.35 a barrel.

Please note, the markets will remain closed for Good Friday.