Carmakers, pharmaceutical buoy Seoul stocks
The benchmark Kospi gained 10.49 points, or 0.42 percent, to 2,485.52. Trade volume was light at 5.29 trillion won ($4.95 billion).
After starting lower following losses from U.S. tech shares, the main index rebounded later in the day following strong gains from carmakers and pharmaceutical firms.
“The shares fell earlier due to the wait-and-see stance on the Federal Open Market Committee [FOMC] coupled with the Facebook issue,” said Kim Byung-yeon, a researcher at NH Investment & Securities.
The U.S. Federal Reserve’s FOMC is scheduled to have a meeting on rate hikes today and tomorrow. Shares of Facebook fell 6.77 percent on Wall Street overnight amid allegations that user information was leaked.
Foreigners sold more shares than they bought at 140 billion won. Institutions bought more shares than they sold at a net 103 billion won, while individuals scooped up 6.3 billion won.
Carmakers closed higher, with Hyundai Motor advancing 0.66 percent to 152,500 won and Hyundai Mobis increasing 3.32 percent to 233,500 won. Kia Motors added 1.75 percent to 31,950 won.
Pharmaceutical companies were also winners, with Samsung BioLogics rising 2.67 percent to 462,000 won and Celltrion moving up 1.1 percent to 322,500 won. Hanmi Pharmaceutical increased 1.19 percent to 509,000 won.
Market behemoth Samsung Electronics increased 0.91 percent to 2,560,000 won and Samsung SDI also added 1.21 percent to 208,500 won.
Steelmakers closed mixed, with No. 1 Posco losing 0.73 percent to 340,500 won while Korea Zinc increased 0.42 percent to 478,000 won.
The secondary Kosdaq climbed 9.43 points, or 1.07 percent, to 890.40. The tech-heavy market ended in positive terrain as foreigners bought pharmaceutical shares en mass, bringing up the sector by 2.8 percent.
Foreigners were net buyers, purchasing a net 75.8 billion won. Institutions and individuals each offloaded 2 billion won and 65 billion won.
The local currency closed at 1,068.60 won against the U.S. dollar, down 3.00 won from the previous session.
Bond prices, which move inversely to yields, ended lower. The yield on three-year bonds rose 1.1 basis points to 2.29 percent, and the return on 10-year government bonds climbed 0.8 basis points to 2.73 percent.
BY KIM EUN-JIN, YONHAP [kim.eunjin1@joongang.co.kr]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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