(RTTNews) - The South Korean market is trading in the red on Monday despite a few frontline stocks from shipping and technology sectors finding some modest support at lower levels. The sharp setback experienced by Wall Street last Friday amid fresh concerns over the economy has hurt sentiment significantly in the Asian region and the filing of Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection by leading U.S. lender CIT Group is taking a toll of banking sector stocks.

The benchmark KOSPI index, which drifted down to 1,543 in early trades, is currently down with a loss of 13.7 points, or 0.86% at 1,567.

Among bank stocks, Korea Exchange Bank and Woori Finance are trading lower by 4.3% and 3%, respectively. Shinhan Financial and KB Financial are both down by about 1.5%.

In the automobile space, Hyundai Motor is trading nearly 4% down. Ssangyong Motor is down with a 2% loss, while Kia Motor is trading flat.

Steel stocks Hyundai Steel and POSCO are down 2.7% and 2%, respectively. Oil stocks are also trading notably lower. Telecom and airline stocks are trading mixed.

In the shipping space, Hyundai Heavy Industries is up 2.2%, Samsung Heavy Industries is gaining about 0.7% and Daewoo Shipbuilding is trading 0.6% up, while bulk carrier STX Pan Ocean is trading in negative territory with a 1.3% loss.

Among tech stocks, Hynix Semiconductor, Samsung Electronics and LG Display LCD are trading flat, while LG Electronics is down 1.8% from its previous close.

Among other markets in the Asia-Pacific region, Australia, Hong Kong and Japan are down with sharp losses. Shanghai, Indonesia, New Zealand, Singapore and Taiwan are also trading notably lower. On Friday, markets across the region had ended notably higher, wiping off some losses suffered earlier in the week.

On Wall Street, stocks declined sharply with a batch of mixed economic data raising doubts about economic recovery. Consumer sentiment in the month of October came in below the final reading for September and poor labor market conditions impacted consumer spending in September, offsetting a positive data that revealed an unexpected expansion in the Chicago-area manufacturing sector in October.

The Dow ended lower by nearly 250 points, or 2.5%, at 9,712.7, the Nasdaq fell 52.4 points, or 2.5%, to 2,045.1 and the S&P 500 closed down 29.9 points, or 2.8%, at 1,036.2.

Major European markets ended with heavy losses on Friday. The U.K.’s FTSE 100 closed down by 1.8%, while the French CAC 40 index and the German DAX index lost 2.9% and 3% respectively.

Crude oil finished sharply lower on Friday as a notable decline in equities raised concerns about the prospects for energy demand. A stronger dollar also lessened oil’s hedge appeal. Light sweet crude for December dropped to US$77 per barrel, down US$2.87 on the session.

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Posted in Categories: Australia, Eurozone, Japan, New Zealand, Releases, Stocks, USA.

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