South Korean stocks ended lower Wednesday as foreign selling of market bellwether Samsung Electronics Co. and other large-cap stocks weighed on the main index. The Korean won rose against the US dollar.
The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index shed 1.29 points, or 0.05 percent, to 2,512.90.
Foreign investors offloaded shares worth more than 162 billion won ($150.4 million).
Kim Ye-eun, an analyst at IBK Securities Co., said the decline can be blamed on the foreign selling of Samsung Electronics Co. and shares of other big companies.
Kim and other analysts said the main index was not affected by North Korea's launch of a long-range ballistic missile earlier in the day.
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(Yonhap) |
Large-cap stocks experienced mixed trading across the board.
Top automaker Hyundai Motor rose 2.23 percent to 160,500 won, and Naver, the operator of the country's top Internet portal, was up 0.62 percent to 812,000 won.
Meanwhile, Samsung Electronics fell 1.28 percent to 2,630,000 won, and No. 2 chipmaker SK hynix Inc. was down 0.24 percent to 82,400 won.
The local currency closed at 1,076.80 won against the US dollar, up 7.60 won from the previous session's close.
Bond prices, which move inversely to yields, closed higher. The yield on three-year Treasurys fell 0.7 basis point to 2.112 percent, and the return on the benchmark five-year government bonds was down 0.8 basis point to 2.303 percent. (Yonhap)
