South Korean stocks closed almost flat Tuesday as investors’ sentiment was dented by the heightened tension with North Korea, analysts said. The local currency gained against the U.S. dollar.
The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index edged up 2.06 points, or 0.11 percent, to close at 1,920.74. Trading volume was moderate at 347.2 million shares worth 3.79 trillion won ($3.31 billion), with decliners outnumbering gainers 508 to 293.
“The tension on the Korean Peninsula is expected to continue down the road, with the birthday of Kim Il-sung, founder of North Korea, falling on April 15,” said Bae Sung-young, an analyst at Hyundai Securities Co.
North Korean employees did not show up at the inter-Korean industrial complex in the North’s border city of Kaesong on Tuesday, after Pyongyang said a day earlier it would withdraw its workers from the area, adding to the geopolitical tension.
South Korean President Park Geun-hye said Tuesday that North Korea’s decision to suspend the operation of a jointly run factory complex is “very disappointing.”
A total of 123 South Korean factories employ some 53,000 North Korean workers at the complex. Revenues from the zone were considered a key source of hard currency for the impoverished North. (Yonhap News)
