Institutional investors send index down
The benchmark Kospi closed at 2,081.84, down 2.02 points, or 0.1 percent, from the previous trading day.
Foreign investors bought 162.5 billion won ($142.5 million) in shares and retail investors purchased 41.9 billion won worth of stock. Institutional investors, on the other hand, offloaded 261.6 billion won in shares on Thursday.
“Investors are still concerned over a potential rate hike in the United States and volatile currency moves,” said Lee Kyong-min, an analyst at Daishin Securities. “The local stock market may attempt to advance, but any sharp rise is unlikely down the road,” he said.
Automakers remained in positive terrain. Hyundai Motor advanced 3.44 percent to 150,500 won, and its smaller affiliate Kia Motors rose 0.67 percent to 37,600 won.
SK Hynix gained 3.55 percent to 49,600 largely thanks to the news that the chipmaker might have a chance to win Toshiba’s memory business.
The secondary Kosdaq closed at 618.59, up 0.63 points, or 0.1 percent, from the previous day. Pharmaceuticals were weak while semiconductors related firms were strong.
Kakao dropped 2.94 percent to 82,400 won and CJ E&M fell 0.13 percent to 77,900 won. Celltrion gained 0.2 percent to 101,700 won.
The Korean won rose against the U.S. dollar on Thursday.
The local currency closed at 1,141.50 won against the U.S. dollar, up 0.7 won from the previous session’s close.
Bond prices, which move inversely to yields, closed higher. The yield on three-year government bonds fell 0.5 basis point to 1.656 percent and the return on the benchmark five-year government bond shed 0.8 basis point to 1.85 percent.
BY KIM YOUNG-NAM, YONHAP [kim.youngnam@joongang.co.kr]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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