Bleak U.S. Outlook Drops Share Prices

Share prices in Seoul fell to a three-month low Friday, hit by continued profit warnings from major U.S. high-tech companies including software giant Microsoft Inc. and International Business Machine Corp.

Samsung Electronics Co. announced better-than-expected earnings, but it did not affect the domestic stock market very much, analysts said. Shares of the chipmaker were off 0.6 percent to 176,000 won.

The Korea Composite Stock Price Index dropped 8.03 points, or 1.47 percent, to 537.71, off a high of 541.95 and a low of 534.39. Trading volume was light at 275 million shares valued at 1.1 trillion won ($842 million).

Declining issues swamped gainers 537 to 247, with 72 other stocks unchanged. Four shares declined by the daily limit of 15 percent, while 19 issues jumped by that limit.

"Amid a lack of market-leading momentum, investor sentiment was burdened by bleak profit outlook of U.S. tech companies and the Korea Development Institute's downgrading of Korea's economic growth to 4 percent for this year," said an analyst at Daishin Securities Co.

Leading the market's decline, Hynix Semiconductor Inc. plunged 7.6 percent to its all-time low of 1,400 won, after it posted 266 billion won of operating losses Thursday for the second quarter that ended in June. Hyundai Securities Co. forecast that the debt-ridden chipmaker would continue to lose money unless the global price for the dynamic random access memory chips rise more than 50 percent.

The Kosdaq market also drooped to its lowest level in three months, with its composite index down 1.3 points.

by Kim Hyun-chul