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Korean shares snap winning streak, bucking Wall Street gains

Published: 24 Mar. 2025, 16:39

KIM JU-YEON
[email protected]

A screen in Hana Bank's trading room in central Seoul shows the Kospi closing at 2,632.07 points on March 24, down 11.06 points, or 0.11 percent, from the previous trading session. [YONHAP]

Shares ended lower Monday, snapping their five-session winning streak as investors off-loaded tech and other large-cap stocks on profit taking. The won fell in value against the dollar.

The Kospi fell 11.06 points, or 0.42 percent, to close at 2,632.07. The Kosdaq gained 0.81 points, or 0.11 percent, to 720.22.

Trade volume was moderate at 359.99 million shares worth 6.84 trillion won ($4.7 billion) with decliners outpacing gainers 463 to 401.

The Kospi opened lower, bucking gains on Wall Street on Friday.

Retail investors' stock selling largely weighed on the stock market.

Institutions and individuals sold a net 3.75 billion won and 77.56 billion won worth of shares, respectively, exceeding foreign buying valued at 7.46 billion won.

Tech stocks led declines.

Samsung Electronics fell 1.94 percent to 60,500 won, and chipmaker SK hynix declined 1.86 percent to 211,500 won.

Steelmaker Posco Holdings plunged 5.37 percent to 308,500 won, and national flag carrier Korean Air dropped 0.45 percent to 22,300 won.

Internet portal operator Naver fell 1.19 percent to 207,000 won while Kakao, the operator of mobile messenger app KakaoTalk, dipped 3.9 percent to 41,900 won.

Bio shares also fell. Samsung Biologics dropped 1.46 percent to 1,079,000 won, and Celltrion shed 1.02 percent 184,800 won.

Among gainers, automaker Hyundai Motor rose 3.9 percent to 213,000 won, and its affiliate Kia gained 3.24 percent to 98,800 won.

Battery maker LG Energy Solution rose 0.76 percent to 331,500 won.

Refiner SK Innovation rose 1.7 percent to 125,500 won, and shipping firm HMM was up 2.57 percent to 20,350 won.

Defense firm Hanwha Aerospace shot up 7.17 percent to 673,000 won.

The local currency was trading at 1,467.70 won against the dollar at 3:30 p.m., up 5 won from the previous session.

Bond prices, which move inversely to yields, ended lower. The yield on three-year government bonds gained 0.5 basis point to 2.604 percent, and the return on the benchmark 10-year U.S. government bonds rose 2.4 basis points to end at 4.255 percent.

BY KIM JU-YEON, YONHAP [[email protected]]