Foreign selling send Kospi down 0.57%
Stocks closed lower Tuesday as international investors turned away from Korea and Greece’s potential Eurozone exit sapped investor sentiment for risky assets. The local currency gained against the U.S. dollar.There are already growing concerns that the Korean main bourse may not even be able to stay in the neighborhood of 1,900. Over the past two trading days, the Kospi has lost nearly 20 points.
The benchmark Kospi slid 11.14 points, or 0.57 percent, to finish at 1,935.86. Trading volume was moderate at 319.23 million shares worth 4.06 trillion won ($3.72 billion). There were 454 losers and 351 gainers.
Foreign investors led the decline, net selling shares worth 13.06 billion won. Retail investors bought shares worth 93 billion won and institutional investors net purchased 38.1 billion won in shares.
By industry, transport fell 1.42 percent, medical products lost 1.41 percent and securities declined 1.2 percent. On the other hand, utilities gained 1.05 percent, medical equipment edged up 0.85 percent and non-metallic minerals increased 0.45 percent.
Among large cap shares, Naver plunged 4.85 percent, Samsung SDS fell 3.05 percent and Samsung Life Insurance shed 1.8 percent.
The nation’s largest steelmaker, Posco, gained 1.73 percent, Korea Electric Power Corp. increased 1.19 percent and Kia Motors edged up 0.69 percent.
Korea’s sovereign bonds fell for a second day on speculation the central bank is facing less pressure from the government to reduce interest rates still further.
The yield on three-year bonds due December 2017 rose eight basis points, or 0.08 percentage point, to 2.06 percent as of the close in Seoul. The five-year yield climbed eight basis points to 2.16 percent, while that on 10-year notes rose seven basis points to 2.37 percent.
The central bank will cut the seven-day repurchase rate to 1.75 percent as early as this quarter, according to the median estimate of 23 economists surveyed from Jan. 16 to Jan. 21.
The won weakened 0.5 percent to 1,089.54 to the dollar, after falling to the lowest in a week Tuesday.
BY KIM JUNG-YOON, BLOOMBERG [kjy@joongang.co.kr]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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