Seoul shares seen up; eyes on Kumho Asiana issues

SEOUL, June 15 (Reuters) - Seoul shares may open higher on
Monday after gains on Wall Street, while eyes may be on Kumho
Asiana Group shares after a local media report the group has
decided to sell stakes in affiliates including Kumho Autolease.

"U.S. stocks ended positive and this will also help lift
Seoul shares. Likely continued foreign buying will support the
index," said Won Jong-hyuck, a market analyst at SK Securities.

"The economic and corporate earnings outlooks are improving
as the second quarter earnings season approaches next month. This
bodes well for the markets," Won added.

Markets may also react to a cautious outlook by South Korea's
finance minister, who said in comments published Monday that the
economy was still sliding even though the pace of decline had
slowed. [ID:nSEO14985]

Kumho Asiana Group shares may be eyed after a local media
report the group plans to sell off some of its affiliates
including Kumho Autolease to raise funding for its 2006 purchase
of Daewoo Engineering & Construction (047040.KS).

Falls in crude CLc1 prices could boost transporters
including Korean Air Line (003490.KS).

The Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) finished up
0.65 percent at 1,428.59 points on Friday.
----------------------MARKET SNAPSHOT @ 2243 GMT ------------

INSTRUMENT LAST PCT CHG NET CHG
S&P 500 .SPX 946.21 0.14% 1.320
USD/JPY JPY= 98.42 -0% 0.000
10-YR US TSY YLD US10YT=RR 3.7916 -- 0.000
SPOT GOLD XAU= 934.9 -0.32% -3.000
US CRUDE CLc1 72 -0.06% -0.060
DOW JONES .DJI 8799.26 0.32% 28.34
ASIA ADRS .BKAS 114.03 -1.25% -1.44
-------------------------------------------------------------

MARKETS SUMMARY
*Oil falls on stronger dollar, profit-taking [nLC158279]
*Defensives lift Dow, S&P; tech weighs on Nasdaq [nN1284396]
*Dollar rebounds broadly, weak data hurts euro [nN1269110]
*Treasuries rise in post-auction relief trade [nN12447706]

STOCKS TO WATCH

CHIPMAKERS

Shares of Rambus Inc (RMBS.O) rose more than 14 percent on
Friday after the chip designer said had reached a tentative
settlement of antitrust charges brought by the European
commission. [ID:nN12388620]

DOOSAN HEAVY INDUSTRIES (034020.KS)

Doosan Heavy won a power plant order worth 120 billion won
($96.10 million) from Iran, according to the Maeil Business
Newspaper.

($1=1248.6 Won)

(Reporting by Jungyoun Park; Editing by Jonathan Hopfner)