Kospi slides for the third consecutive day
Korean shares kept on falling on Wednesday, mainly due to the unstable Chinese stock market.The benchmark Kospi lost 16.88 points or 0.86 percent to close at 1939,38.
Retail investors sold 186 billion won ($158 million) in local shares and foreign investors unloaded their shares for a 10th consecutive trading day, while institutional investors net purchased.
The junior Kosdaq market suffered greatly due to a robust selling spree by institutional investors. The index plummeted 29.25 points or 4.18 percent to close at 670.55.
Prior to releasing its new Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy Edge Plus devices in the domestic market today, Samsung Electronics revealed cheaper-than-expected factory prices for the two. This helped the share climb 2.03 percent to close at 1,154,000 won.
Although SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won visited SK Hynix chip plants in Incheon, Gyeonggi, as part of efforts to boost his companies along with the national economy, SK Hynix shares plunged 5.85 percent to close at 33,000 won.
AmorePacific, the nation’s leading cosmetics company that counts China as its second-biggest market, plunged 4.42 percent to close at 346,000 won, a record low for the past four months.
Hyundai Motor rose 1.02 percent to close at 148,000 won. Sister company Kia Motors soared 3.66 percent to 46,700 won while auto parts affiliate Hyundai Mobis inched down 0.48 percent to 208,500 won.
One-month non-deliverable forwards fell 0.2 percent to 1,185.75 a dollar as of 3:27 p.m. in Seoul, data compiled by Bloomberg showed, after dropping to as low as 1,189.65 earlier. The won has weakened 8 percent this year.
“Offshore investors are leading the dollar-buying as their risk appetite has soured,” said Kim Dae-hun, a currency dealer at Busan Bank in Seoul. “Concerns about instability in China’s financial markets will keep the won weak along with other emerging Asian currencies.”
Korean government bonds fell, with the three-year yield rising one basis point to 1.73 percent, Korea Exchange prices showed.
The 10-year yield climbed three basis points to 2.31 percent.
BY CHOI, JEONG-PIL, BLOOMBERG [choi.jeongpil@joongang.co.kr]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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