SEOUL, Oct 8 (Reuters) - Seoul shares are likely to hold a narrow range on Monday as the market awaits stronger signals on progress in combating the euro zone's ills, despite positive U.S. jobs data.
"Although the U.S. unemployment figures were encouraging, this in itself is not sufficient to create momentum in the market towards one direction or another. Investors here will likely wait for more news from the euro zone," said Cho Byung-hyun, an analyst at Tong Yang Securities.
The European Stability Mechanism, a 500 billion-euro rescue fund, comes into effect on Monday. Meanwhile, the finance ministers of the euro zone will meet in Luxembourg.
The Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI)
rose
0.12 percent to close at 1,995.17 points on Friday.
------------------MARKET SNAPSHOT @ 22:28 GMT-------------------
SEOUL, Oct 8 (Reuters) - ------------------MARKET SNAPSHOT @ 22:08 GMT ------------------ INSTRUMENT LAST PCT CHG NET CHG S&P 500 1,460.93 -0.03% -0.470 USD/JPY 78.65 -0% 0.000 10-YR US TSY YLD 1.743 -- 0.000 SPOT GOLD $1,779.36 -0.08% -1.430 US CRUDE $89.82 -0.07% -0.060 DOW JONES 13610.15 0.26% 34.79 ASIA ADRS
120.65 -0.45% -0.55 ------------------------------------------------------------- >S&P500 dips after four days of gains;earnings eyed
>Prices fall as jobless rate improves,new supply due
>Improvement in U.S. jobs data lifts dollar vs yen
>Oil dips as weak global economy offsets rise in US
---STOCKS TO WATCH--- **SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS ** Samsung Electronics
reported a record quarterly profit of $7.3 billion, nearly double last year's figure, as strong sales of high-end TVs and Galaxy smartphones more than offset reduced orders for chips and screens from Apple Inc AAPL.O, its main rival and leading customer.
**GS ENGINEERING & CONSTRUCTION CORP
**
Shares in GS Engineering & Construction Corp
may
slide following a local media report that the builder has abandoned a bond sale due to lack of demand. The weak appetite for bonds was likely affected by the news last week of another builder, an affiliate of Woogjing Holdings
, applying for court receivership.
(Reporting By Somang Yang; Editing by Richard Pullin)
((somang.yang@thomsonreuters.com)(+82 2 3704 5643)(Reuters Messaging: somang.yang.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))
Keywords: MARKETS KOREA STOCKS/