Seoul shares seen rangebound; U.S. data to weigh

SEOUL, Sept 8 (Reuters) - Seoul shares are set to trade in a
tight range on Monday after a flat finish in Wall Street on
Friday, but weak U.S. job data may weigh on exporters.

Exporters such as Hyundai Motor (005380.KS) and Samsung
Electronics (005930.KS) may fall after U.S. government data
showed the unemployment rate soared to 6.1 percent last month, a
near five-year high.

However firms that are sensitive to energy prices such as
Korean Air Line (003490.KS) could gain after U.S. crude CLc1
fell to around $106 per barrel on Friday, easing inflation
worries and concerns about operational cost burdens.

"We expect caution to pervade markets today ahead of this
week's big events, most namely domestic bond redemptions on
Tuesday and Wednesday. Options and futures expiries on Thursday
may also add volatility," said Hong In-young, a market analyst at
HMC Investment & Securities.

The head of South Korea's financial regulatory agency said
early on Monday that domestic stock markets had large room for
gains due to their low valuations and as local companies had a
bright business outlook.

Jun Kwang-woo, chairman of the Financial Services Commission,
was speaking on the state-run KBS radio channel about the
turbulent local financial markets amid fears of mass capital
flight out of Asia's fourth-largest economy.

The Korea Composite Stock Price Index closed 1.55
percent lower at 1,404.38 points on Friday, but up from the
session low of 1,393.33. The main index fell 4.7 percent on the
week.
----------------------MARKET SNAPSHOT @ 2247 GMT ------------

INSTRUMENT LAST PCT CHG NET CHG
S&P 500 .SPX 1242.31 0.44% 5.480
USD/JPY JPY= 108.51 -0.42% -0.460
10-YR US TSY YLD US10YT=RR 3.708 -- 0.000
SPOT GOLD XAU= 808.5 0.71% 5.700
US CRUDE CLc1 108.37 2.01% 2.140
DOW JONES .DJI 11220.96 0.29% 32.73
ASIA ADRS .BKAS 129.40 0.97% 1.24
-------------------------------------------------------------

MARKET SUMMARY
*Dow, S&P end higher on financials, down for week [ID:nN05263512]
*Oil falls $2 to 5-month low on economic gloom [ID:nL5628989]
*U.S. dollar falls from 11-month high versus euro [ID:nN05470976]
*Treasury yields hit 4-mth low on risk aversion [ID:nT170220]

STOCKS TO WATCH

CELL PHONE MAKERS - SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS, LG ELECTRONICS
(066570.KS)

The world's biggest cellphone maker, Nokia (NOK1V.HE), said
it expects to lose market share in the third quarter as it fights
to maintain profit margins, sending its shares as much as 14
percent lower on Friday.

It also said it expects the mobile device market in 2008 to
be hit by weak consumer confidence and tough competition in
developing markets.[ID:nL5105391]

(Reporting by Park Jung-youn; Additional reporting by Yoo
Choonsik; Editing by Jonathan Hopfner)