South Korean stocks may expand their gain this week, buoyed by lessening eurozone default risks, local analysts said Saturday.
The benchmark KOSPI closed on Friday at 1,993.71, up 1.4 percent from a week earlier.
The index surpassed the keystone 2,000 mark for the first time in six months during the weekly trading session, although it lost some ground on Friday as investors remained cautious that a bailout deal for Greece may not end Europe’s fiscal woes.
Market watchers said there are some downside risks with foreign investors likely to take a wait-and-see stance, but most predicted the KOSPI would regain the 2,000 mark.
Foreign investors bought a net 1 trillion won ($889 million) of Korean stocks with private investors shedding 600 billion won in holdings last week.
“There is momentum remaining in the market that can push up the KOSPI, although shares will likely move in a generally tight range,” said Lee Seung-woo, an analyst at Daewoo Securities.
He added that the bourse as a whole needs to find materials that can continue to bolster the market for the rest of February.
Others said that besides developments in Greece, the market can be affected by fluctuations in global crude oil prices, and consumer and manufacturing indexes coming from the U.S.
(Yonhap News)
