\n South Korean shares closed lower Tuesday for a fifth consecutive session as institutions continued their selling spree. The local currency slightly rose against the U.S. dollar.<\/p>\n
The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) shed 6.58 points, or 0.26 percent, to close at 2,561.24.<\/p>\n
Trade volume was moderate at 782.4 million shares worth 8.76 trillion won (US$6.66 billion), with gainers outpacing loser 573 to 288.<\/p>\n
The KOSPI stayed in positive terrain throughout the session following overnight gains on Wall Street but lost earlier gains after institutional investors turned to selling.<\/p>\n
“The KOSPI came close to breaching the 2,650 mark shortly after the market opened but returned most early gains as net buying by institutions shrank,” Lee Kyung-min, an analyst at Daeshin Securities, said.<\/p>\n
“Samsung Electronics turned lower after reporting a 4th quarter earning shock, which appears to have put additional downward pressure on the KOSPI,” the analyst added.<\/p>\n
Samsung Electronics forecast its operating pr
\nofit for the fourth quarter of 2023 to shrink 35 percent on-year to 2.8 trillion won, falling far short of a market estimate of 3.9 trillion won compiled by Yonhap Infomax, the financial data firm of Yonhap News Agency.<\/p>\n
Institutions net sold 67.3 billion won worth of local shares, extending their selling spree to a fifth consecutive session. Individuals offloaded a net 10.4 billion won, while foreigners scooped a net 73.8 billion won.<\/p>\n
Large caps closed mixed.<\/p>\n
Market kingpin Samsung Electronics lost 2.35 percent to 74,700 won, while No. 2 chipmaker SK hynix added 1.03 percent to 137,400 won.<\/p>\n
Top internet portal operator Naver gained 1.32 percent to 229,500 won, with leading mobile service provider SK Telecom advancing 0.72 percent to 49,250 won.<\/p>\n
Leading automaker Hyundai Motor slipped 0.05 percent to 185,600 won, while its smaller affiliate Kia Motors climbed 0.22 percent to 89,100 won.<\/p>\n
The local currency closed at 1,315.70 against the greenback, up 0.30 won from the previous session’s close.<\/p>\n
Bond price
\ns, which move inversely to yields, closed higher. The yield on three-year Treasurys lost 3.5 basis points to 3.262 percent, with the return on the benchmark five-year government bonds dipping 3.6 basis points to 3.276 percent.<\/p>\n
Source: Yonhap News Agency<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
South Korean shares closed lower Tuesday for a fifth consecutive session as institutions continued their selling spree. The local currency slightly rose against the U.S. dollar.<\/p>\n
The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) shed 6.58 point…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n