Seoul shares edge up on steelmakers, tech stocks

South Korean stocks closed higher Wednesday as investors scooped up steelmakers and some tech stocks on expectations that their earnings have bottomed out, analysts said. The South Korean won fell against the U.S. dollar.

The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index soared 3.61 points, or 0.18 percent, to 2,042.97. Trading volume was moderate at 660.79 million shares worth 5.09 trillion won ($4.49 billion), with losers outnumbering gainers 455 to 348.

Analysts said the market sentiment remains positive ahead of key economic events in the United States, Europe and Japan, while investors were responding selectively to corporate earnings results.

The European Central Bank's policy meeting is due on Thursday, and markets expect it to hint at additional fiscal measures to boost inflation.

"The overall market doesn't show a certain trend, while investors are selling overpriced stocks to lock in profits and buying stocks with good news from earnings reports," said Kim Dae-jun, an analyst at Korea Investment & Securities.      

"Investors are hesitant to make big bets right now, taking a wait-and-see approach during the third-quarter earnings season." 

Institutions bought a net 65.31 billion won, while foreigners and retail investors offloaded a net 20.8 billion won and 82.98 billion won, respectively.

Steel stocks were top performers. Leading steelmaker POSCO jumped 5.85 percent to 190,000 won after the company said it will have senior executives buy stocks of its affiliates and push for quarterly dividends to boost share prices. Hyundai Steel, a steelmaking unit of Hyundai Motor, rose 3.13 percent to 56,000 won.

Tech shares were mixed. Samsung Electronics, the market behemoth, rose 0.32 percent to end at 1270,000 won. LG Electronics, the No. 2 tech firm, soared 14.41 percent to 53,600 won after announcing it will supply key vehicle components to General Motors for its new electric vehicle due to be mass-produced starting in late 2016.

In contrast, chip giant SK hynix sank 5.74 percent to 33,650 won following news that SanDisk, a U.S. flash memory producer, was in talks to sell itself to hard disk drive maker Western Digital Corp.

The local currency ended at 1,132.5 won against the greenback, down 1.5 won from Tuesday's close.

Bond prices, which move inversely to yields, closed lower. The yield on three-year Treasurys gained 0.9 basis point to 1.649 percent and the return on the benchmark five-year government bonds added 0.9 basis point to 1.813 percent. (Yonhap)