Seoul shares end tad higher on institutional buying

South Korean stocks closed slightly higher Wednesday in a volatile session as institutions' net buying of local equities offset losses from a foreign selloff, analysts said. The local currency fell against the U.S. dollar.

In a choppy trading session, the benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index finished up 1.63 points, or 0.08 percent to 1,923.84. Trading volume was moderate at 408.1 million shares worth 5.29 trillion won (US$4.75 billion) with gainers outpacing losers 414 to 394.

"Institutions snapped up shares after those sectors that suffered falls in the past few days began to gain momentum, such as builders, refiners and shipyards," said Bae Sung-young, an analyst at Hyundai Securities Co.

Shares of major South Korean construction companies gathered ground on Wednesday after Daelim Industrial Co. spiked on the back of forecast-beating first-quarter results, logging a net profit of 121.3 billion won. It closed up 7.01 percent to 79,400 won.

Institutional investors increased bets on chemical and oil refiners on bargain hunting, scooping up a net 109.7 billion won. LG Chem gained 1.46 percent to 243,000 won and oil refiner SK Innovation added 0.71 percent to 142,000 won. These issues dropped at least 6 percent over the last three trading days.

"We could say that material sectors have slowly begun to gather ground and stabilize," Bae added.

The gains in material issues lent support to overshadowing the main index's volatile moves stemming from a net foreign selloff worth 209.4 billion won. The KOSPI bobbed in and out of negative territory throughout most of the session, before eking out gains at the closing.

Telecom shares finished bullish, with smallest mobile carrier LG Uplus surging 5.05 percent to 9,360 won.

In contrast, airlines and tech firms slipped. Top air carrier Korean Air Lines dipped 4.39 percent to 31,600 won and top-cap Samsung Electronics lost 0.65 percent to 1,518,000 won.

The local currency ended at 1,118.50 won against the greenback, down 3.3 won from Tuesday's close, largely due to the foreign selloff, dealers said. (Yonhap)