Investors sell for profits and indexes take a dip
Markets closed lower yesterday as institutional and foreign investors sold high-price ship-building and machinery issues to profit from recent rallies, analysts said. During the past four trading days foreign investors sold almost 1 trillion won ($1.1) worth of stock.Other Asian markets followed last week’s jump on the New York Stock Exchange, but the Kospi was left behind. The benchmark Kospi lost 10.72 points, or 0.6 percent, to 1,716.56.
“The main index faced a technical correction from a recent run-up,” said Kim Young-gak, an analyst at Hyundai Securities Co. “But losses were limited as gains in tech blue chips buttressed the market.”
The biggest fallers were shipbuilding and machinery. Industry leader Hyundai Heavy Industries dropped 2.7 percent. Doosan Heavy Industries lost almost 10 percent after Goldman Sachs told clients to sell shares of the country’s leading power generator manufacturer. Doosan Infracore, the sister machinery company, was impacted by the Goldman Sachs report, falling more than 6 percent.
Construction and security brokerages, which had experienced a short term jump, also lost ground.
Information technology and carmakers gained. Samsung Electronics advanced 1 percent to 578,000 won, while its chipmaking counterpart Hynix Semiconductor increased 1.4 percent. The aggregate value of listed stocks of Samsung now equals more than 10 percent of the entire market’s value.
LG.Philips LCD, the flat panel display giant, added 1.5 percent. Merrill Lynch raised its rating of the shares to “buy.”
Volume was moderate at 469.5 million shares worth 6.8 trillion won, with losers outpacing winners 469 to 325.
The tech heavy Kosdaq also fell, losing 1.94 points, or 0.3 percent at 758.69. More than 641 million shares worth 2.4 trillion won changed hands. But winners still outpaced losers 588 to 365.
By Hwang Young-jin Staff Writer [yhwang@joongang.co.kr]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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