Bourse falls on foreign sales, U.S. losses
The benchmark Kospi closed at 2,357.53, down 11.7 points, or 0.49 percent, from the previous trading day.
Institutional investors offloaded 188.6 billion won ($165 million) in shares and foreign investors sold 181.7 billion won worth. Retail investors, on the other hand, purchased 295.2 billion won in shares. Trade volume was moderate at 356.21 million shares worth 6.34 trillion won.
Large-cap stocks were mixed across the board. Market bellwether Samsung Electronics fell 1.37 percent to 2,374,000 won. But chipmaker SK Hynix rose 1.25 percent to 64,800 won.
Some stocks ended in positive territory, with state-run electricity provider Korea Electric Power Corp. up 1.33 percent to 41,750 won and cosmetics giant AmorePacific up 1.50 percent to 305,000 won.
Shares related to securities and financial institutions were particularly weak.
KB Financial Group dropped 2.17 percent to 54,200 won and Shinhan Financial Group fell 2.32 percent to 48,450 won. Lotte Chemical, on the other hand, gained 3.54 percent to 336,500 won and mobile service provider KT rose 0.47 percent to 32,200 won.
Tobacco company KT&G lost 2.49 percent to 117,500 won and steelmaker Posco fell 1.48 percent to 267,000 won.
The secondary Kosdaq closed at 665.77, down 3.64 points, or 0.54 percent, from the previous trading day.
Celltrion gained 0.7 percent to 115,100 won, while Kakao lost 2.66 percent to 98,800 won. CJ E&M dropped 0.26 percent to 76,300 won.
The local currency closed at 1,144.00 won against the U.S. dollar, down 8.60 won from the previous session’s close.
Bond prices, which move inversely to yields, ended lower. The yield on three-year Treasurys rose 0.7 basis point to 1.692 percent and the return on benchmark five-year government bonds climbed 0.4 basis point to 1.854 percent.
BY KIM YOUNG-NAM, YONHAP [kim.youngnam@joongang.co.kr]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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