South Korea’s stock market is expected to rebound this week as concerns over a possible tapering-off of credit easing measures by the U.S. and other major economies relax, analysts said.
The country’s key stock index, the KOSPI, lost 34.61 points, or 1.8 percent, this week to close at 1,889.24. Foreign investors dumped a net 2.4 trillion won ($2.1 billion) worth of local shares this week on concerns that the U.S. Federal Reserve may scale back its quantitative easing.
In the past few sessions the global financial market has been agitated by both good signs over some major economies and woes over whether the Fed and other central banks will reduce their credit easing moves.
In particular, Samsung Electronics, the country’s top market cap, continued to remain in a slump under heavy selling by foreign investors.
“Investors may attempt to buy shares next week following recent sharp falls. Also, stock investors may get some soothing comments from the U.S. Fed next week,” said Park Seung-young, an analyst at KDB Daewoo Securities.
Ben Bernanke, the Fed chairman, is due to give a news conference on Wednesday after the Fed’s policy committee ends a two-day meeting.
The analyst said investors will pay key attention to data from the European region, which may provide a further boost to the market.
Meanwhile, U.S. stocks fell on Friday on lingering woes that major economies’ central banks may start to reduce their stimulus programs.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 0.7 percent to close at 15,070.18, and the Nasdaq Composite index dropped 0.63 percent to end at 3,423.56. (Yonhap News)
