Local stocks fall after U.S. strikes Syria
The benchmark Kospi closed at 2,151.73, down 1.02 points, or 0.05 percent, from the previous day.
Foreign investors offloaded 86.3 billion won ($76.1 million) in shares on Friday. Institutional investors bought 21.1 billion won in stocks and retail investors purchased 18.4 billion won in shares.
Foreign investors have been offloading their shares in the last five consecutive trading days. Friday’s offloading amounted to almost the same as on Thursday’s.
“There are some signs of waning risk-on sentiment given a set of major developments around the globe,” said Kim Sung-hwan, an analyst at Bookook Securities.
Most of the top shares by market capitalization saw their share drop from Thursday’s.
SK Hynix, a major chipmaker which ranks second by market capitalization, rose 0.81 percent to finish at 49,800 won.
LG Electronics, the nation’s No. 2 home appliance maker, advanced 0.42 percent to 70,900 won after it estimated its first-quarter operating income at 922 billion won, turning around from a loss a year earlier.
Hyundai Motor fell 2.36 percent to end at 144,500 won as it, along with its smaller affiliate Kia Motors, plans to recall more than 1 million cars in Korea and the U.S. for faulty engines. Kia Motors shed 0.84 percent to 35,550 won.
The secondary Kosdaq rose for the third straight day. The index closed at 633.32, up 2.86 points, or 0.45 percent.
The local currency closed at 1,134.50 won against the U.S. dollar, down 1.3 won from the previous session’s close.
Bond prices, which move inversely to yields, closed lower. The yield on three-year Treasuries rose 0.2 basis point to 1.681 percent, while the return on the benchmark five-year government bond gained 1.1 basis points to 1.871 percent.
BY KIM YOUNG-NAM, YONHAP [kim.youngnam@joongang.co.kr]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
To write comments, please log in to one of the accounts.
Standards Board Policy (0/250자)