South Korea's stock market will likely remain choppy with no clear direction next week amid mounting concerns over corporate earnings in the fourth quarter of this year, analysts said Saturday.

Earnings estimates are expected to come down for the fourth-quarter, Park Jung-sup, an analyst at Daishin Securities.

FnGuide Inc., a financial information provider, has said 114 major listed companies are forecast to report a combined operating profit of 30.4 trillion won (US$28 billion) for the October-December period, down 4.9 percent from the third quarter.

It cited the country's weak exports amid the rising won as a cause for the downward revisions. A stronger won usually hurts earnings of exporters by making their goods more expensive in overseas markets.

Uncertainty over how to avoid the fiscal cliff in the United States is also weighing down the local market.

Park said the benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) is not likely to reach the 2,000-point level as there is no momentum and analysts have slashed earnings estimates for local companies.

The benchmark index ended at 1,997.05 on Friday, up 0.84 percent from a week ago.

This week, foreign investors purchased a net 268.8 billion won

worth of shares with institutions scooping up 491.7 billion won in

shares. Retail investors, on the other hand, offloaded 713.2

billion won worth of shares.The Seoul bourse will open at 10 a.m. on Wednesday due to year-end holidays.

(Yonhap News)