(RTTNews) - The South Korea stock market on Thursday halted the two-day slide in which it had tumbled more than 300 points or 4 percent. The KOSPI now sits just above the 7,815-point plateau and it's tipped to open in the green again on Friday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is cautiously optimistic on easing crude oil prices. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.
The KOSPI finished with enormous gains across the board, especially among the finance, technology, chemical and automobile companies.
For the day, the index skyrocketed 606.64 points or 8.42 percent to finish at 7,815.59 after trading between 7,486.37 and 7,819.23. Volume was 616.36 million shares worth 42.74 trillion won. There were 667 gainers and 220 decliners.
Among the actives, Shinhan Financial collected 0.85 percent, while KB Financial vaulted 2.70 percent, Hana Financial jumped 3.29 percent, Samsung Electronics soared 8.51 percent, Samsung SDI strengthened 8.07 percent, LG Electronics rallied 29.83 percent, SK Hynix surged 11.17 percent, Naver advanced 4.18 percent, LG Chem improved 4.82 percent, Lotte Chemical added 3.54 percent, SK Innovation increased 2.86 percent, POSCO Holdings gained 6.35 percent, SK Telecom climbed 4.79 percent, KEPCO expanded 6.78 percent, Hyundai Mobis skyrocketed 25.23 percent, Hyundai Motor accelerated 12.50 percent and Kia Motors spiked 12.38 percent.
The lead from Wall Street is positive as the major averages spent the first half of Thursday in the red before bouncing firmly into positive territory, ending near daily highs.
The Dow climbed 276.31 points or 0.55 percent to finish at 50,285.66, while the NASDAQ added 22.74 points or 0.09 percent to end at 26,293.10 and the S&P 500 rose 12.75 points or 0.17 percent to close at 7,445.72.
The initial pullback on Wall Street came amid a substantial rebound by the price of crude oil, with U.S. crude oil futures surging as much as 4.5 percent after plummeting by 5.7 percent on Wednesday.
Unable to hold those early gains, crude oil prices turned lower over the course of trading on Thursday as investors watched developments in the U.S.-Iran peace talks. West Texas Intermediate crude for July delivery was down $1.41 or 1.43 percent at $96.85 per barrel.
Meanwhile, traders seemed to shrug off the negative reaction to earnings news from Nvidia (NVDA), although the AI leader still slumped by 1.8 percent.
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