Seoul shares to gather ground amid eased US woes

The South Korean stock market is expected to trade higher next week on eased concerns over an early tapering of the U.S. Federal Reserve's quantitative easing, analysts said Saturday. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) fell 2.9 percent this week to close at 1,980.41. Investors continued to take a wait-and-see approach ahead of U.S. non-farm job data coming out after Friday's trading session, which would give investors a better glimpse of when the Federal Reserve will commence tapering of its quantitative easing. "This month's Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting, however, is unlikely to come up with a tapering of its economic stimulus, as latest improvements in U.S. data are not sufficient enough to say the country is in a full-fledged recovery trend," said Han Chi-hwan, a researcher at KDB Daewoo Securities Co.