Stronger won leads to fall on the Kospi
The benchmark Kospi closed at 1,995.85, down 6.29 points, or 0.31 percent, from the previous trading day.
Foreign investors offloaded 210.8 billion won ($184.4 million) in shares, while retail and institutional investors bought 81.3 billion won and 58.5 billion won worth of stock each.
Market bellwether Samsung Electronics rose 0.31 percent to 1,312,000 won.
Automakers were weak, as when the won goes up, their exports tend to fall.
Hyundai Motor dropped 1.93 percent to 152,500 won and Kia Motors fell 1.93 percent to 48,300 won.
Lotte Shopping lost 5.46 percent to 251,000 won and Hanmi Science dropped 4.48 percent to 149,000 won.
The secondary Kosdaq closed at 688.38, down 2.75 points, or 0.40 percent, from the previous trading day.
Clothing brand Codes Combine again plunged 22.54 percent to 75,600 won.
The won advanced 0.7 percent to 1,143.50 a dollar in Seoul. The currency climbed to 1,143.20 earlier, the strongest level since Nov. 26, and has rallied 8.2 percent this month in Asia’s best performance.
“The data is good, it’s a factor for a strong won,” said Jeon Seung-ji, a foreign-exchange analyst at Samsung Futures. “Today is the end of the month, so exporters are selling their dollars.”
The 10-year bond yield increased one basis point to 1.79 percent, trimming its drop this year to 28 basis points. The three-year was little changed at 1.44 percent after falling eight basis points in the previous five days.
“The yields have declined for several days so it was time to take profits,” said Kim Jin-pyung, a fixed-income analyst at Samsung Futures.
BY KIM YOUNG-NAM, BLOOMBERG [kim.youngnam@joongang.co.kr]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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