U.S. subprime woes again weaken Kospi
Korean stocks plunged yesterday due to the continued fallout from the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis. The main Kospi dropped 43.80 points, or 2.1 percent, to end at 2,019.34 amid a selling spree by foreign and institutional investors.“The subprime mortgage crisis still lurks in the dark. However, we’ve been through it before, and the market is now immune to such a shock. It won’t cause any other negative factors, such as depressed consumer sentiment,” Lee Young-gon, an analyst at Hanwha Securities, said.
The nation’s blue chips proved to be vulnerable to the impact of the U.S. subprime mortgage troubles. Samsung Electronics, the company with the largest market value, dipped 1.6 percent to 540,000 won ($590). Besides Samsung Electronics, top steel maker Posco and the world’s largest shipbuilder Hyundai Heavy Industries, which stood at second and third respectively in terms of market value, lost 2.7 percent and 3.4 percent.
Hynix, the world’s second-largest computer memory chip maker, slipped 1.8 percent to 24,100 won. Major retailer Shinsegae lost 3.9 percent to 718,000 won. Lotte Shopping fell 5.6 percent to 400,000 won.
Defying the tendency to fall, SK Corporation, an oil refining and marketing firm, rose 2.7 percent to 267,000 won, and snack manufacturer Orion advanced 5.9 percent to 18,000 won.
As for the financial industry, Korea Exchange Bank slid 3.1 percent to 14,200 won, while Shinhan Financial Group also fell 3.1 percent to 56,700 won. Mirae Asset, Korea’s second-largest brokerage by market value, climbed 7.6 percent to 191,000 won.
Total traded volume was 388.4 million shares worth 8.9 trillion won.
The tech-heavy Kosdaq closed at 797.66, down 11.84 points, or 1.5 percent. Total traded volume stood at 459.1 million shares valued at 1.9 trillion won.
By Sung So-young Staff Writer [ebusiness@joongang.co.kr]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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