\nSEOUL, South Korean stocks turned almost flat late Thursday morning after starting higher as auto and bio shares lost ground.<\/p>\n
The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) had edged down 0.04 point to 2,620.38 as of 11:20 a.m., almost unchanged from the previous session’s close.<\/p>\n
Individual investors and foreigners sold a combined 149.5 billion won (US$112.1 million) worth of stocks, offsetting institutions’ stock purchases valued at 127 billion won.<\/p>\n
Market bellwether Samsung Electronics fell 0.81 percent, while No. 2 chipmaker SK hynix Inc. gained 0.2 percent.<\/p>\n
Auto and bio shares went south.<\/p>\n
Top carmaker Hyundai Motor declined 1.63 percent and its smaller affiliate Kia plunged 2.55 percent.<\/p>\n
Bio giant Samsung Biologics went down 0.85 percent, and Celltrion lost 0.6 percent.<\/p>\n
But battery and IT shares gained ground.<\/p>\n
Leading battery maker LG Energy Solution advanced 0.77 percent and its smaller rival Samsung SDI rose 0.26 percent. POSCO Future M also jumped 3.33 percent.<\/p>\n
Internet portal operato
\nr Naver climbed 1.73 percent, and Kakao, the operator of the country’s top mobile messenger, shot up 9.84 percent on record sales in the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n
The local currency was trading at 1,334.10 won against the U.S. dollar, up 1.3 won from the previous session’s close.<\/p>\n
Source: Yonhap News Agency<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
SEOUL, South Korean stocks turned almost flat late Thursday morning after starting higher as auto and bio shares lost ground.<\/p>\n
The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) had edged down 0.04 point to 2,620.38 as of 11:20 a.m., almost uncha…<\/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