SEOUL: Round-up of South Korean financial markets:

** South Korean equities fell on Wednesday after investors offloaded shares on the ex-dividend date, and as risk sentiment took a hit after two major Wall Street indexes snapped a four-day rise overnight. The Korean won strengthened, while the benchmark bond yield fell.

** The benchmark KOSPI fell 26.95 points, or 0.89%, to 2,993.29 as of 0630 GMT.

** Among the heavyweights, technology giant Samsung Electronics dropped 1.87% and peer SK Hynix fell 0.39%, while LG Chem declined 0.63% and Naver slid 0.65%.

** On Wall Street, the S&P 500 closed slightly lower after hitting a record intraday high on Tuesday, as a four-day rally lost steam in thin trading and investors weighed Omicron-driven travel disruptions and store closures.

** Meanwhile, a Reuters poll showed that South Korean exports likely grew for a 14th straight month in December on year-end holiday demand for chips and petrochemical goods, while inflation is expected to remain near a decade high.

** Foreigners were net sellers of 121.8 billion won worth of shares on the main board.

** The won was quoted at 1,186.5 per dollar on the onshore settlement platform, 0.13% higher than its previous close at 1,188.0.

** In offshore trading, the won was quoted at 1,187.3 per dollar, up 0.1% from the previous day, while in non-deliverable forward trading, its one-month contract was quoted at 1,187.5.

** The KOSPI has risen 4.17% so far this year, and gained 0.8% in the previous 30 trading sessions.

** The trading volume during the session in the KOSPI index was 536.60 million shares. Of the total traded issues of 931, the number of advancing shares was 438.

** The won has lost 8.4% against the dollar so far this year.