Seoul shares fell on Friday as exporters such as Samsung Electronics retreated on fears a US housing slump will hit the world's top economy, but the main index still posted its best weekly gain in nearly five years.
The KOSPI cut back an earlier loss of as much as 1.4 percent, with SK Energy surging following a positive brokerage report, while Hanmi Capital gained on a media report Woori Financial Group could buy a stake, which was later confirmed by one of the parties.
The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) fell 0.47 percent to end at 1,791.33 points Despite the retreat, the main index still posted a weekly advance of 9.4 percent, its biggest such gain since mid-October 2002. The index is still well below a record 2,015.48 points hit on July 26.
Foreign investors unloaded a net 209.4 billion won ($222.3 million) worth of shares on the main bourse, marking their 28th session of net sales out of the past 29, and siphoning 12.1 trillion won out of the market in that period.
Trade volume reached 368.6 million shares worth 4.8 trillion won compared to 394.7 million shares worth 6 trillion won on Thursday. Decliners edged out gainers by 433 to 342 with 68 titles ending flat. The September KOSPI 200 futures index dropped 1.85 points to 227.35, while the underlying KOSPI 200 spot index lost 1.42 points to 227.18.