Seoul shares pare gains on foreign selling
Seoul, Aug 10 (IANS) South Korean shares pared earlier gains late on Monday morning as foreign investors continued to sell big-cap tech shares despite bargain hunting by retail and institutional investors.
After opening 0.76 per cent higher, the benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) added 25.15 points, or 0.4 per cent, at 6,283.92 as of as of 11.20 am, reports Yonhap news agency.
Foreign investors sold nearly 619.7 billion won (US$437.8 million), offsetting a combined 598.2 billion won worth of buying by retail and institutional investors.
The KOSPI ended lower for a second straight session Friday, weighed down by foreign selling.
On Friday (local time), Wall Street advanced, following U.S. job reports. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.28 percent, while the S&P 500 added 0.62 percent to a fresh record. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index increased 1.3 percent.
Korean technology stocks remained the bulwark of the market.
After opening higher, market bellwether Samsung Electronics inched down 0.11 percent, while its chipmaking rival SK hynix climbed 0.84 percent.
The Korean won was trading at 1,414.8 won against the U.S. dollar as of 11:20 a.m., down 5.3 won from the previous session’s close.
In Seoul, technology stocks led the gains, with individual and institutional investors snapping up shares on bargain hunting.
Market bellwether Samsung Electronics rose 2.49 percent, and its chipmaking rival SK hynix climbed 3.94 percent.
The Korean won was trading at 1,412.1 won against the U.S. dollar as of 9:15 a.m., down 2.6 won from the previous session’s close.
Meanwhile, President Lee Jae Myung was set to preside over a meeting Monday to discuss ways to promptly implement a large-scale investment initiative for semiconductor manufacturing facilities and artificial intelligence (AI) data centres.
The meeting will discuss support for the prompt implementation of the investment plans, as well as ways to spread the benefits from the investments across all regions and throughout the industrial ecosystem, the presidential office said.
Officials plan to explain the progress made so far on the investment plans and unveil measures to secure the electricity and water supplies needed to build a semiconductor production cluster, the presidential office said.
—IANS
na/