Seoul shares edged lower on Tuesday after a choppy trading session, weighed down by persistent worries of a renewed debt crisis in the euro zone, prompting investors to curb riskier strategies pending the results of a Spanish bond auction. The Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) inched down 0.37 percent to close at 1,985.30 points. Tuesday's turnover of 3.93 trillion won ($3.45 billion) was the lowest in three and a half months.
"With debt worries over Spain looming large the market bucked slightly to downward pressure, especially without the ever-reliant support of blue chips that have gone missing in recent sessions," said Cho Byung-hyun, an analyst at Tong Yang Securities.
Spanish bond yields soared above 6 percent on Monday for the first time since December, and Madrid faces a key test of investor confidence when it holds a series of bond auctions on Tuesday and Thursday. Data releases from the US yielded mixed signals, as sentiment received a limited boost from stronger-than-expected retail sales growth in March, but that was offset by sharp falls in New York manufacturing activity.
Energy stocks underperformed, with S-Oil, South Korea's third-largest refiner, falling 2.7 percent while GS Holdings lost 1.7 percent. Investors continued to cash out of index heavyweight Samsung Electronics, which fell 0.8 percent on Tuesday to set a six-day losing streak after a hitting an all-time high in early April that put it up 22 percent for the year. 441.3 million shares exchanged hands on the main bourse while declining shares outnumbered winners 413 to 385. The KOSPI 200 index was down 0.44 percent while the junior, tech-heavy KOSDAQ edged 0.14 percent lower.