Seoul shares open lower on Fed's minutes

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Seoul shares open lower on Fed's minutes

Published: 13 Apr. 2023, 09:46 Updated: 13 Apr. 2023, 10:26

A screen in Hana Bank's trading room in central Seoul shows stock and foreign exchange markets open on Thursday. [NEWS1]

Stocks got off to a weak start Thursday, after the U.S. Federal Reserve's minutes showed that some of its officials are worried over a recession later in the year.

The Kospi lost 18.77 points, or 0.74 percent, to trade at 2,531.87 in the first 15 minutes of trading.

The Fed's minutes from the March policy meeting showed some officials forecasting a "mild recession" later this year, with concerns over the liquidity crisis at the banking sector sparked by the collapse of the Silicon Valley Bank.

But such worries are unlikely to derail the Fed's move to keep its restrictive monetary policy, as U.S. inflation data, released Wednesday, showed the prices, excluding volatile food and energy, staying well above the Fed's 2 percent range target in March.

The data bolstered bets the Fed will go ahead with another quarter-point rate hike at the end of its policy meeting in May.

Major stocks in Seoul fell across the board.

Samsung Electronics slid 0.3 percent, and battery maker LG Energy Solution sank more than 2 percent.

Posco Holdings tumbled more than 7 percent, and its chemical materials unit, Posco Future M, dipped 6 percent.

The local currency was trading at 1,326 won against the dollar at around 9:15 a.m., up 0.3 won from Wednesday's close.

Yonhap