Seoul shares slipped on Wednesday on sharp falls in shipyards and technology issues, including Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering and Samsung Electronics, and as investors remained cautious ahead of a holiday this week. The Korea Composite Stock Price Index finished down 0.91 percent at 2,180.64 points. KOSPI 200 June futures fell 2.9 points to 289.75 and the KOSPI 200 spot index lost 3.19 points to 288.46. The junior Kosdaq market ended down 0.39 percent at 510.53.
Year-to-date performance, valuations and global leading indicators suggested taking profit on South Korean stocks, Credit Suisse said in a report dated May 3, but added it remained overweight on shares due to continues strength of corporate earnings seen this year. Foreign investors were buyers of a net 12.8 billion Korean won ($11.9 mln) worth of stocks, purchasing stocks for an eleventh-straight sessions. Technology issues lost ground, and Samsung Electronics, the world's No 1 memory chip maker, ended down 2.5 percent, and Hynix Semiconductor , the world's No 2, down 5.8 percent.
Shipbuilders declined, with shares in Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering falling 2.4 percent despite a robust set of quarterly results. Daewoo Shipbuilding said on Wednesday its net profit for the first quarter jumped 108 percent from a year ago to 238.7 billion won. Shares were also ripe for profit-taking after their latest set of gains, said Kim Hong-kyun, an analyst at Dongbu Securities.
Comments
Comments are closed.