Seoul bourse to face severe volatility next week

The South Korean stock market is expected to face volatility next week as eurozone countries are still mired in a deadlock over solutions to the worsening Greek debt crisis, analysts said Saturday. The country's key stock index, the KOSPI, shed 0.72 percent, or 14.74 points, to close at 2,031.93 on Friday. Losses in tech and large cap shares led the market declines. This week, the local share market suffered a severe market fluctuation on mixed data regarding the U.S. economy and persisting Greek debt problems. Tech shares led the market decline on concerns that their second-quarter earnings may fall short of market expectations. However, construction and banking shares gained ground. "Foreign investors are selling local shares, but they will respond by buying undervalued shares," said Lee Seung-woo, an analyst at Daewoo Securities. But the analyst said any meaningful rebound is unlikely. "There could be a technical rebound next week, but the market may face selling pressure as well," he said. Market participants expect Europe to tackle its debt crisis and some positive domestic economic data on the U.S. economy to be released. Meanwhile, the U.S. stocks were mixed over the past week, with the blue-chip Dow Jones industrial average rising 0.44 percent to close at 12,004.36. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite index, however, fell 1.03 percent to 2,616.48.