Seoul shares seen rangebound;eyes on foreign buying

SEOUL, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Seoul shares may be rangebound on
Monday with recently renewed foreign buying likely to continue
amid brewing hopes for solid fourth quarter earnings, but modest
losses on Wall Street are set to weigh on sentiment.

"The main KOSPI index will try firming its support at its
60-day moving average of the low-1,600s...eyes will be on foreign
trading patterns, and we believe foreign buying will likely
continue today," said Chung Seung-jae, a market analyst at Mirae
Asset Securities.

"Looking ahead at fourth quarter earnings, worries that they
may flatten out is dissipating," Chung added.

Handset makers such as LG Electronics (066570.KS) could react
to news on Sunday Apple's (AAPL.O) iPhone will go on sale in
South Korea this Saturday, offered by the country's No. 2 mobile
carrier KT Corp (030200.KS). [ID:nSEO283549]

Markets may also respond to news that South Korea's top
state-run research agency on Sunday called on the authorities to
exit emergency policy measures gradually, predicting the economy
would grow in 2010 at its fastest pace in eight years.
[ID:nSEO263471]

The Korea Composite Stock Price Index .KS11 (KOSPI) ended
flat to finish at 1,620.60 on Friday.
----------------------MARKET SNAPSHOT @ 2331 GMT ------------

INSTRUMENT LAST PCT CHG NET CHG
S&P 500 .SPX 1091.38 -0.32% -3.520
USD/JPY JPY= 88.89 0.11% 0.100
10-YR US TSY YLD US10YT=RR 3.3694 -- 0.000
SPOT GOLD XAU= 1156.3 0.71% 8.100
US CRUDE CLc1 77.98 0.66% 0.520
DOW JONES .DJI 10318.16 -0.14% -14.28
ASIA ADRS .BKAS 123.12 0.57% 0.70
-------------------------------------------------------------

MARKET SUMMARY
*Wall St dips as investors fret about recovery [nN20241386]
*Oil slips 1 percent on dollar rise, equities slide [nSP361511]
*Dollar advances; traders trim risk exposure [nN20452282]
*Prices slip but short-term Treasury debt in demand [nN20559172]

STOCKS TO WATCH

HANA FINANCIAL GROUP (086790.KS)

Hana Financial Group may be followed after executives at
South Korea's No. 4 banking group said it expected 2009 net
profit at 300 billion-350 billion won ($259 million-$302 million)
and would grow aggressively in China and Indonesia.
[ID:nSEO270779]

(Reporting by Jungyoun Park; Editing by Jonathan Hopfner)

((jungyoun.park@reuters.com; +82 2 3704 5643; Reuters
Messaging; jungyoun.park.reuters.com@reuters.net))

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($1=1180.4 Won)
($1=1161.5 Won)