South Korea’s stock market is expected to remain in a tight range this week with most major stock markets closed for yearend holidays, analysts said.

They said the U.S. fiscal cliff issue will continue to weigh down on the local market but that a drop, if any, will not be too severe as the inflow of foreign investment continues to grow.

The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index closed at 1,980.42 last week, down 0.7 percent from a week earlier, as U.S. lawmakers and President Barack Obama failed to find a compromise on the fiscal issue.

“Despite the postponement of a vote on the United States’ so-called ‘Plan B,’ the range of any drop of the KOSPI will be limited as foreign buying is continuing to increase,” Kim Jung-hwan, an analyst from Daewoo Securities, said.

Last week, foreign investors purchased a net 780 billion won ($725.9 million) worth of shares with institutions scooping up 60 billion won worth of shares. Retail investors, on the other hand, offloaded 610 billion won worth of shares. (Yonhap News)