Investors buy large caps, push up index
On Thursday, the benchmark Kospi closed at 2,370.37, up 12.84 points, or 0.54 percent from the previous trading day.
Retail investors bought 75.7 billion won ($66.3 million) in shares and foreign investors purchased 17.5 billion won worth. Institutional investors, on the other hand, offloaded 137.6 billion won worth.
“Investors bought large-cap stocks, such as Samsung Electronics, pushing up the benchmark index,” Kim Ye-eun, an analyst at Cape Investment & Securities, said
Shinhan Investment projected that the world’s largest manufacturer of smartphones will rack up an operating income of more than 13 trillion won during the second quarter, up 32.4 percent from the previous quarter.
Market bellwether Samsung Electronics advanced 1.01 percent to 2,398,000 won, and chipmaker SK hynix gained 0.31 percent to 65,000 won.
Samsung SDI rose 3.8 percent to 164,000 won and mobile service provider KT rose 1.86 percent to close at 32,800 won. Samsung C&T jumped 4.17 percent to close at 137,500 won and the steelmaker Posco gained 0.75 percent to 269,000 won.
Among decliners, No. 1 refiner SK Innovation fell 0.32 percent to 156,500 won. NCsoft dropped 4.66 percent to 348,000 won and LG Electronics fell 4.66 percent to 81,900 won. GS dropped 0.74 percent to 66,800 won E-Mart fell 1.34 percent to 220,500 won.
The secondary Kosdaq fell for the third consecutive trading day and the Korea Exchange said it was mainly due to retail investors that went for profit taking from the recent gains. It dropped 2.49 points or 0.37 percent from the previous trading day to close at 663.28.
The local currency closed at 1,140.90 won against the U.S. dollar, up 3.10 won from the previous session’s close.
BY KIM YOUNG-NAM, YONHAP [kim.youngnam@joongang.co.kr]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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