South Korean shares ended a shade higher on Monday, with a late spurt of bargain-hunting bolstering shares in Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and helping the market recover from a hefty bout of program-related selling.
Samsung Electronics, the world's largest memory chip maker, dipped to as low as 591,000 won during the day before late retail buying helped the stock close 0.84 percent higher at 599,000 won, analysts said.
Banking shares lost ground, hit by concerns the US Federal Reserve may raise interest rates sooner than expected. Top local lender Kookmin Bank fell 0.55 percent to end at 45,500 won, while Woori Financial Group slid 2.38 percent to end at 8,200 won.
"The possibility of a rate hike will remain a concern for a while," said You Seung-min, an analyst at Samsung Securities. "But towards the end of this week, we are likely to see a shift in market focus as a number of US and domestic companies are set to announce earnings."
The Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) rose 0.36 percent to close at 902.10.
Foreign investors were net buyers on the spot market but sold heavily on the futures market, triggering futures-linked program selling, analysts said.
Shares in the country's top auto maker, Hyundai Motor Co, dropped by 2.26 percent to end at 52,000 won on concerns of possible labour conflict at the firm as its labour union was working on a wage proposal for the year, analysts said.
But LG Electronics Inc rose 3.13 percent to 75,800 won on the back of expectations of a record quarterly profit.
The country's top maker of home appliances is due to announce its first-quarter earnings on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the market showed little reaction to media reports North Korean leader Kim Jong-il had arrived in Beijing for talks on Pyongyang's nuclear programmes and economic aid.
Analysts said it was unclear what impact Kim's talks with China would have on efforts to resolve North Korea's nuclear ambitions peacefully.
Trade volume stood at 476 million shares with a turnover of 2.55 trillion won, versus 389 million shares worth 4.0 trillion won on Friday. Losers outnumbered gainers by 380 to 336 with 94 titles ending flat.
Foreign investors bought a net 3.1 billion won in shares and local institutional investors sold a net 235.5 billion won. Retail investors bought a net 77.2 billion won worth of shares.
The June KOSPI 200 futures index rose 0.85 point to 118.95 and the underlying KOSPI 200 spot index climbed 0.52 point to 118.49. The junior Kosdaq closed 0.82 percent higher at 457.86.
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