Thanks to U.S. Market, Shares Take Wild Ride

Market-moving factors for industry sectors on Wall Street are affecting the Korean stock market. Despite worsened earnings by U.S. chipmakers Micron Technology Inc. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Wall Street finished higher Friday, buoyed by improved results by Juniper Networks Inc., a maker of Internet routers.

In Seoul's stock markets Monday, telecommunication shares rebounded. SK Telecom rose 2.4 percent and Korea Telecom Corp. gained 4.2 percent. On the Kosdaq market, KT Freetel was up 4 percent.

In contrast, semiconductor issues took a beating from losses in their U.S. counterparts, with Samsung Electronics Co. down 1.8 percent. Hynix Semiconductor Inc. plunged 10.9 percent and Anam Semiconductor Inc. shed 5.1 percent.

Foreign investors moved in the same directions as those of U.S. stocks. They purchased 17.9 billion won ($13.7 million) worth of Korea Telecom shares, while unloading Samsung and Hynix shares worth 20 billion won each.

"Korea and the United States are almost like one market in terms of production and consumption," said Na Min-ho, an analyst at Daishin Securities Co. "Korean stock prices will become increasingly linked to those of Wall Street."

Analysts say that telecommunication shares will seek a timing for a rebound now that they have gone through price and periodic corrections. Deteoriorated profits have already been reflected in the share prices, they add.

by Lee Chul-ho