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Kospi blips down 0.02% as court grants Yoon arrest warrant

Published: 02 Jan. 2025, 18:00

SHIN HA-NEE
[email protected]

A screen in Hana Bank's trading room in central Seoul shows the Kospi closing at 2,398.94 points on Jan. 2, down 0.02 percent, or 0.55 points, from the previous trading session. [NEWS1]

Shares closed a tad lower Thursday, extending their losing streak to a fifth consecutive session on political anxieties surrounding the impeachment trial and investigation against President Yoon Suk Yeol. The won's value rose against the dollar.

The Kospi shed 0.55 points, or 0.02 percent, to close at 2,398.94.

Trade volume was slim at 344.7 million shares worth 6.8 trillion won ($4.63 billion). Gainers, however, outnumbered losers 451 to 426.

Institutions and foreigners combined sold a net 438.9 billion won, and individuals bought a net 356 billion won.

The Korean financial market has been facing downside risks following Yoon's short-lived martial law declaration on Dec. 3, which led to the passage of an impeachment motion against him.

The state anti-corruption agency was expected to proceed with a warrant to detain the president for questioning as early as Thursday after a Seoul court granted the warrant in a criminal case over insurrection charges.

"Last year was particularly challenging for the domestic stock market due to internal and external uncertainties, and with uncertainties persisting, it will be difficult to expect a quick recovery in investor sentiment," Kim Ji-won, an analyst at KB Securities, said.

Major blue chips lost ground, with chipmakers and battery shares leading the overall losses.

SK hynix dropped 1.55 percent to 171,200 won, and LG Energy Solution fell 0.57 percent to 346,000 won.

Steel and chemical shares also retreated. Steelmaker Posco Holdings shed 1.38 percent to 250,000 won, and LG Chem slumped 3 percent to 242,500 won.

In contrast, financial shares advanced, with KB Financial jumping 0.6 percent to 83,400 won and Shinhan Financial rising 0.21 percent to 47,750 won.

Samsung Electronics also added 0.38 percent to end at 53,400 won.

The local currency was trading at 1,466.6 won against the greenback at 3:30 p.m., down 5.9 won from the previous session.
Bond prices, which move inversely to yields, closed mixed. Three-year government bond yields fell by 8.6 basis points to 2.509 percent, while the return on the benchmark 10-year U.S. government bonds rose by 3.3 basis points to 4.572 percent.

BY SHIN HA-NEE, YONHAP [[email protected]]