Kospi climbs for week, marking 15th in black
The Korean stock market finished the week at another record high with only 28 points left to reach 1,800 at the Kospi. The rally is a 15-week consecutive rise. Investors were buying in machinery and telecommunications issues.Caution prevailed after a spike on Thursday, but news from the overnight New York Stock Exchange brightened the mood. The benchmark Kospi rose 3.08 points, or 0.2 percent, to 1,772.26.
“After swinging between gains and losses, the main index gained some momentum due to gains on Wall Street and other Asian markets,” said Park Suk-hyun, an analyst at Kyobo Securities. “But many blue chips, which sharply rose in the previous session, suffered pullbacks.”
The numbers on food and beverages popped up 3.2 percent. With news that they would be forming holding companies, CJ and Doosan went up 4.4 and 9.9 percent respectively. Machinery shares also added with leading power generator maker Doosan Heavy Industries going up 1.6 percent on solid earnings outlooks.
Telecommunications as a sector rose 2.1 percent. LG Dacom went up to the daily limit of 15 percent. Top mobile service carrier SK Telecom climbed 2.5 percent.
Brokerage shares continued the rally that started Tuesday, on expectations that the National Assembly will pass a bill to allow security firms to offer several banking services.
Tech blue chips were in the red. Samsung Electronics, the tech bellwether, fell 1.2 percent to 574,000 won, while the world’s second biggest chipmaker, Hynix Semiconductor, lost 1 percent.
Trading was robust at 534.1 million shares worth 7.8 trillion won ($8.4 billion). Winners outpaced losers 482 to 300.
The tech-heavy junior Kosdaq added 17.6 points or 2.3 percent to 800.61. More than 739 million shares worth 3 trillion won changed hands.
By Hwang Young-jin Staff Writer [yhwang@joongang.co.kr]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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