Seoul: Seoul shares ended slightly lower Friday on foreign selling, with China's better-than-expected economic growth falling short of boosting investor sentiment. The Korean won fell against the U.S. dollar.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) fell 3.94 points, or 0.16 percent, to close at 2,523.55. The main index has risen 0.3 percent this week. The KOSPI had opened in negative terrain, tracking overnight losses on Wall Street, where the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.16 percent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite dropped 0.89 percent.
Trade volume was moderate at 436.58 million shares worth 9.88 trillion won (US$6.77 billion), with decliners outnumbering winners 444 to 434. Foreign investors sold a net 236.87 billion won worth of stocks, while institutions offloaded 101.58 billion won, and retail investors bought a net 289.34 billion won.
"Foreigners turned net sellers after scooping up local stocks in the previous two sessions ahead of President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration next week," commented Lee Jae-won, an analyst at Shinhan Securities. Despite China's robust economic data, the index did not respond positively.
China's economy grew 5.4 percent in the fourth quarter from a year earlier and reported annual growth of 5 percent for 2024, driven by strong exports. Its retail sales rose 3.5 percent on-year in 2024, yet these figures failed to uplift the market in Seoul.
In the sector performance, auto and shipbuilding stocks led declines. Hyundai Motor, the top carmaker, fell 3.42 percent to 211,500 won, while Hanwha Ocean, formerly Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering, dropped 1.55 percent to 50,700 won. Market bellwether Samsung Electronics fell 1.1 percent to 53,700 won, but No. 2 chipmaker SK hynix rose 2.14 percent to 214,000 won.
Among other gainers, leading refiner SK Innovation rose 0.94 percent to 128,800 won, and state utility firm Korea Electric Power Corp. jumped 2.47 percent to 20,750 won. The local currency was trading at 1,458.30 won against the greenback at 3:30 p.m., down 1.6 won from the previous session.
Bond prices, which move inversely to yields, closed higher. The yield on three-year Treasurys lost 3.8 basis points to 2.588 percent, and the return on the benchmark five-year government bonds shed 3.5 basis points to end at 2.688 percent.