South Korean stocks are likely to continue fluctuating in a tight range next week amid lingering uncertainties about inflation pressure.

The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) closed at 2,971.02 points Friday, slightly up from 2,968.8 points a week ago.

Stocks slumped from Tuesday to Thursday as strong economic indexes in the United States and China fanned concerns that accelerating inflation pressure may spur the Federal Reserve to hasten its timeline for raising the policy interest rates.

Analysts also expected that South Korea's central bank would most likely raise the key interest rate at its Nov. 25 monetary meeting.

Analysts said the inflation uncertainties are likely to continue weighing on the local stock market throughout next week.

"The local banks already have raised their interest rates (earlier than the BOK's rate decision,) and therefore the BOK may not strongly push to raise its policy rates (in the November meeting)," said NH Investment & Securities analyst Kim Young-hwan.

"Investors seem to be reacting more sensitively to the U.S. Treasury yields -- the inflation jitters are expected to continue (next week), unless the supply-chain bottleneck is visibly relieved," he added.

This week, foreign investors bought a net 231 billion won (US$195 million) worth of local stocks at the main bourse. Institutions purchased a net 75 billion won, while retail investors offloaded 353 billion won, during the cited period.

Source: Yonhap News Agency