Seoul shares down

Seoul shares edged down on Friday in mixed trading as hopes diminished that US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke would hint in a closely-watched speech later in the day that he is ready to launch a new round of bond-buying. The Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) closed 0.07 percent down at 1,905.12 points after shuffling between positive and negative territory throughout the session.
"There were no decisive movements on the bourse in the absence of market-driving issues as investors exercised caution before Jackson Hole," said Park Ok-hee, an analyst at IBK Investment & Securities, referring to the speech Bernanke is scheduled to make on Friday. Foreign and local institutional investors net sold a combined 140 billion won ($123 million) worth of KOSPI shares at market close, weighing on the index.
Market heavyweight Samsung Electronics closed up 1.5 percent as investors reacted to a Tokyo court ruling that said Samsung's mobile devices did not violate an Apple Inc patent. The ruling was not expected to have a great impact on Samsung's overall forecast, as it is only one ruling in the global patent dispute between Samsung and Apple, Korea Investment & Securities analyst Seo Won-seok said.
LG Uplus closed 0.8 percent higher after rising as much as 6 percent. South Korea's third largest mobile service provider announced it would retire 78.2 million of its own shares, worth 594 billion won as of Friday's closing price. Banks lost ground, tracking their US peers, with KB Financial Group down 2.8 percent and Shinhan Financial Group falling 1.3 percent.
General insurance stocks rose after the Financial Services Commission announced on Thursday measures for general insurers to offer low-cost medical indemnity insurance policies, with Hyundai Marine & Fire Insurance rallying 2.7 percent while Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance rose 2.9 percent. Gainers outnumbered fallers 423 to 393, while the KOSPI 200 benchmark of core stocks fell 0.2 percent, while the junior, small-cap heavy KOSDAQ edged up 0.5 percent.