Seoul shares may fall; Kookmin, Samsung seen weak

SEOUL, June 23 (Reuters) - Seoul shares may fall on Monday
with financials and memory chip makers likely to struggle on
renewed worries about the credit crunch and corporate earnings
after a drop in Wall Street shares on Friday.

Financials such as Kookmin Bank 060000.KS and Shinhan
Financial Group (055550.KS) may retreat after shares in major
U.S. banks tumbled on talk of profit warnings and additional
write-downs on mortgage holdings, pushing down shares in banks
such as Merrill Lynch MER.N.

Memory chip makers such as Samsung Electronics (005930.KS)
and Hynix Semiconductor (000660.KS) could come under pressure on
an increasingly grim outlook for tech sectors after a U.S.
brokerage downgraded its rating on Sandisk Corp (SNDK.O), the
world's No.1 supplier of flash memory-based data storage cards
used in music players and mobile phones.

"Seoul stocks are likely to see a fall of some 1 percent
today after U.S. shares' tumbling on Friday. Sentiment has turned
from weak to worse," said Kang Moon-sung, a market analyst at
Korea Investment & Securities.

"Adding to the downward pressure may be losses by carmakers
after S&P's talk of downgrade on high energy price," Moon added.

S&P said it may cut its ratings on U.S. carmakers such as
General Motors (GM.N) and Crysler LLC, citing financial damage
from high gasoline prices [ID:nN20284169].

The Korea Composite Stock Price Index closed down
0.56 percent at 1,731.00 points on Friday.
----------------------MARKET SNAPSHOT @ 2239 GMT ------------

INSTRUMENT LAST PCT CHG NET CHG
S&P 500 .SPX 1317.93 -1.85% -24.900
USD/JPY JPY= 107.39 0.16% 0.170
10-YR US TSY YLD US10YT=RR 4.168 -- 0.000
SPOT GOLD XAU= 904.1 0.36% 3.250
US CRUDE CLc1 134.82 -0.40% -0.540
DOW JONES .DJI 11842.69 -1.83% -220.40
ASIA ADRS .BKAS 152.41 -3.64% -5.75
-------------------------------------------------------------

MARKETS SUMMARY
*Dow ends below 12,000 on oil prices, bank fears [ID:nN20355206]
*Oil leads most markets higher; corn rolls back [ID:nN20185345]
*Dollar falls on credit jitters, Fed rate worries [ID:nN20476334]
*Treasuries up as stocks fall in safe-haven bid [ID:nN20259166]

STOCKS TO WATCH

POSCO

One man was killed and two others were injured in clashes
between supporters and opponents of South Korea's POSCO planned
steel plant in an east Indian village [ID:nB205167].

(Reporting by Park Jung-youn; Editing by Keiron Henderson)