Seoul shares shed 0.5 percent on Tuesday weighed by falls in memory chip issues such as Samsung Electronics and shipbuilders, but gains in auto makers including Hyundai Motor boosted markets. The Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) finished down 0.46 percent at 1,649.53 points, but up from the session low of 1,637.15 points.
Key memory chip issues retreated, with Samsung Electronics, the world's No 1 memory chip maker and the largest share on the main KOSPI index, falling 1.46 percent and Hynix Semiconductor losing 2.92 percent. But automakers lent support as they continued to rally following strong quarterly earnings, and as a weaker won eased worries about the price competitiveness of exports.
Shares in Hyundai Motor, South Korea's top automaker, ended up 2.63 percent and Kia Motors, the country's No 2, advanced 2.14 percent. Builder GS Engineering & Construction rose 2.35 percent on market talk that it was the best-positioned bidder for an order worth $3 billion in the United Arab Emirates.
Green Cross jumped for a second session, gaining 6.27 percent, as a rising death toll deepened H1N1 influenza fears, and continuing to draw support from news US authorities had granted emergency use authorisation to an experimental new influenza drug that a company spokesman confirmed it had the sole domestic licence to manufacture and distribute.
LG Innotek reported toward the close of the market on Monday a 37.5 billion won third-quarter net profit, below a 61.5 billion won forecast. Credit Suisse downgraded its rating for the company to "underperform" from "neutral", and lowered its target price to 105,000 won from 140,000 won previously.