Kospi declines after break for holidays

Home > >

print dictionary print

Kospi declines after break for holidays

The Korean market reopened yesterday after a three-day break for Chuseok, but the Kospi was devoid of cheery holiday spirit. The index was down 15.25 points, or 0.74 percent, and closed at 2,034.16 points.

The drop was due to the fact that yesterday was a “quadruple witching day,” which refers to the simultaneous expiration of stock index futures and options and individual stock futures and options.

Retail investors net purchased 262.4 billion won ($253.5 million) but it wasn’t enough to counter institutional and foreign investors.

Samsung Electronics stock lingered at about 1.2 million won then dropped just before the close to 1.19 million won, down 0.75 percent. LG Electronics declined 0.41 percent to 72,300 won. LG Display rallied after Apple presented its new iPhone 6 and Apple Watch on Tuesday in Cupertino, California. The company, which makes display panels for Apple, added 3.23 percent to 35,200 won.

Major automobile shares fell. Hyundai Motor dropped 1.84 percent to 213,500 won and Kia Motors lost 0.85 percent to 58,100 won. Experts said the weakening Japanese yen has played a role in the recent decline of automobile shares.

Meanwhile, the nation’s largest steelmaker Posco added 1.43 percent to 354,000 won but Hyundai Steel went down 0.53 percent to 75,700 won.

LG Chem remained unchanged for a second trading day at 262,500 won. Lotte Chemical added 2.13 percent to 168,000 won.

Search engine shares were mixed. As for Naver, the three-day break didn’t halt the company’s continuous decline from the previous week. The nation’s No. 1 search engine fell 3.59 percent to 699,000 won. Rival Daum also slid 1.96 percent to 155,100 won.

Online games company NHN Entertainment, which soared by more than 14 percent on Sept. 4 after it acquired Korea Cyber Payment, flopped 4.61 percent to 78,700 won.

The won weakened to 1,036.10 per dollar at the close, according to the Korea Exchange Bank. It’s the lowest level since Aug. 11. One-month implied volatility in the won, a gauge of expected swings in the exchange rate used to price options, dropped 0.19 percentage point to 6.97 percent.

BY KIM EUN-JI, BLOOMBERG [eunjik@joongang.co.kr]














Log in to Twitter or Facebook account to connect
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
help-image Social comment?
s
lock icon

To write comments, please log in to one of the accounts.

Standards Board Policy (0/250자)