Seoul shares inched up in thin trade on Thursday, as investor hopes for progress in US fiscal talks offset the effect of stocks going ex-dividend. The Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) closed up 0.26 percent at 1,987.35 points. Although stocks went ex-dividend on Thursday, the main board outperformed the 1.2 percent fall estimated by the Korea Exchange on Wednesday by closing in positive territory.
Shares going ex-dividend means that people who buy the shares from now will not qualify for dividends for the current reporting period. "Investors are expecting at least a provisional agreement of sorts in the US fiscal negotiations before the year is over, even if it is to be finalised in January," said Kang Hyun-ki, an analyst at IM Investment & Securities.
"Considering it was ex-dividend date, hopes for a resolution for the fiscal cliff appears pretty high." Select high-dividend stocks still saw steep declines, with mobile carrier KT Corp dropping 5.3 percent and SK Telecom Co Ltd falling 4.1 percent, while Industrial Bank of Korea slipped 2.5 percent.
Among daily movers, Korea Line Corp rose by the daily limit of 15 percent after Korea Economic Daily and other media reported on Thursday that five bidders including SK Shipping Co Ltd and CJ Group had entered preliminary bids to acquire management control of the shipper through a paid-in capital increase. Korea Line had a market capitalisation of 86.7 billion Korean won ($80.8 million) at Thursday's close.
The KOSPI's turnover was low as the end of the year approached, standing at 3.02 trillion won ($2.8 billion) on Thursday. This was only 70 percent of the daily 30-session average turnover, according to Reuters data. Local institutional and retail investors had purchased a net 174.7 won worth of KOSPI shares, lifting the index. Declining shares outnumbered climbers 434 to 384. The KOSPI 200 benchmark of core stocks rose 0.3 percent, while the junior KOSDAQ gained 1.9 percent.
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