Trump-Xi summit spooks Korea bourse
On Wednesday, the benchmark Kospi closed at 2,160.85, down 0.25 points, or 0.01 percent, from the previous trading day. The broad index bucked overnight gains on Wall Street. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 0.19 percent, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index climbing 0.07 percent.
Institutional investors sold 167.5 billion won ($149 million) in shares and foreign investors offloaded 7.6 billion won worth of stock. Retail investors, on the other hand, bought 128.6 billion won in shares.
“Foreigners continued to sell South Korean stocks, and there was no momentum that could push up the main index,” said Bae Sung-young, a market analyst at KB Securities.
Steelmaker Posco added 1.82 percent to 280,000 won and Korea Electric Power Corporation rose 0.88 percent to 46,100 won.
Top cosmetics producer AmorePacific fell 1.94 percent to 277,500 won and Kia Motors dropped 1.10 percent to 35,950 won.
Woori Bank rose 3.07 percent to 13,450 won, while LG Electronics fell 1.61 percent to 67,200 won. Samsung C&T dropped 1.16 percent to 127,500 won and auto parts maker Hyundai Mobis lost 2.76 percent to 229,000 won.
The secondary Kosdaq closed at 630.17, up 4.68 points, or 0.75 percent, from the previous trading day. This was the first time in 55 days that the index surpassed the 630 level. Korea Exchange said it rose mainly on a strong IT sector performance.
Kakao rose 0.23 percent to 85,900 won and Celltrion gained 0.33 percent to 90,600 won. CJ E&M fell 1.41 percent to 84,200 won.
The local currency closed at 1,124.40 won against the U.S. dollar, down 2.50 won from the previous session’s close.
Bond prices, which move inversely to yields, closed lower. The yield on three-year Treasuries rose 0.8 basis points to 1.654 percent.
BY KIM YOUNG-NAM, YONHAP [kim.youngnam@joongang.co.kr]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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