Market steady but Samsung still soars
Seoul’s main bourse barely moved Monday although Samsung Electronics continued to soar on the back of its fourth-quarter earnings guidance released last week.The benchmark Kospi declined 0.34 points, about 0.02 percent, to close at 2,048.78.
Foreign investors scooped up shares worth 255.0 billion won ($211.14 million). Retail investors net purchased 192.6 billion won in shares while institutions offloaded 457.4 billion won.
By sector, large-cap shares did well and climbed 0.2 percent.
Top market cap Samsung Electronics reached a fresh high again on Monday, rising 2.82 percent, or 51,000 won, to close at 1,861,000 won. At one point in session, it was traded at 1,875,000 won per share.
On Friday, the smartphone maker released its fourth-quarter earnings guidance, in which it estimated that earnings may have risen to as much as 9.2 trillion won.
Chipmaker SK Hynix, also jumped, catapulting 3.23 percent to close at 49,550 won.
However, other top shares fell.
Hyundai Motor, the nation’s leading auto maker, slipped 0.33 percent to 150,050 won. Its affiliate Kia Motors fell 0.98 percent to 40,350 won. Naver, Korea’s largest portal provider, declined 2.5 percent to end at 779,000 won while Posco, a steel maker, dropped 2.4 percent to 244,000 won.
The secondary Kosdaq decreased for the first time in nine days on Monday.
Although the index started out strong with the U.S. index Nasdaq closing at an all-time high, it eventually fell with foreigners and institutions each net selling 19.7 billion and 40.9 billion won in shares.
Still, the trend across the board was mixed.
Pharmaceutical companies Celltrion and Komipharm slipped 1.33 percent and 0.74 percent to 103,900 won and 33,650 won. However, Medytox soared 5.19 percent to close at 397,600 won, on speculation by Nomura that its 2017 earnings may increase nearly 40 percent.
The won strengthened 1.3 percent to 1,208.3 against the dollar.
Three-year treasury yield advanced three basis points to 1.66 percent while 10-year government bonds rose five basis points to 2.13 percent.
BY CHOI HYUNG-JO [choi.hyungjo@joongang.co.kr]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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