Seoul, July 21 (Yonhap News)
South Korean stocks closed slightly lower Friday as investor sentiment was hurt by overnight losses in U.S. equity markets, with forecasts of a turnaround from second-half earnings bolstering the market. The South Korean won rose versus the U.S. dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) dropped 1.97 points, or 0.15 percent, to 1,271.33. Volume was light at 163 million shares worth 1.93 trillion won (US$2.04 billion) with losers outnumbering gainers 425 to 289. However, the blue-chip KRX 100 index rose 0.65 point, or 0.73 percent, to 2,624.42. The tech-laced KOSDAQ index shed 2.28 points, or 0.41 percent, to 551.63. The local currency ended at 950.00 won against the greenback, up 1.90 won from Thursday's close, as exporters sold the dollar."The main bourse fared well today compared with overnight losses in U.S. stocks. The market was propped up by bargain hunting by institutional investors and predictions of good earnings in the second half of the year," said Kim Hak-gyun, an analyst at Korea Investment & Securities Co. U.S. stocks ended lower Thursday due to low earnings of Intel Corp. and worries about a weaker-than-expected business activity report. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 0.76 percent and the NASDAQ Composite Index dropped 1.98 percent. Tech giant Samsung Electronics fell 0.17 percent to 597,000 won, while chip giant Hynix Semiconductor gained 2.56 percent to 32,100 won on a rosy outlook for its earnings in the second half of the year. Hyundai Merchant Marine added 4.53 percent to 15,000 won as investors bet it had fallen too much in the short term. Leading automaker Hyundai Motor advanced 0.69 percent to 72,800 won on bargain hunting as investors held a belief that the impact of its labor union's strikes has already been factored into the company's share prices. Forecasts for a strong performance in the second half contributed to the carmaker's gains, analysts said. Oil refiners rose in regular trading helped by a bounce in oil prices, but they erased earlier advances at the end of the trading on foreign selling. Top refiner SK Corp. ended flat at 64,200 won and No. 2 refiner S-Oil finished unchanged at 66,400 won. U.S. crude oil for August delivery added $0.42, or 0.58 percent, to $73.08 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange on Thursday. Trading company SK Networks fell 0.60 percent to 33,000 won on institutional profit taking, losing its earlier gains on the strength of its strong second-quarter performance. The company said later in the day its second-quarter net income rose 56 percent to 194 billion won from a year ago. On the currency market, the won started lower versus the greenback on dollar buying by offshore investors and rises on the New York non-deliverable forward market on Thursday, dealers said. But dollar selling by exporters sent the won higher against the dollar, they added. Bond prices, which move inversely to yields, leveled off. The return on the benchmark three-year Treasuries ended flat at 4.86 percent, with the yield on the five-year government bonds closing unchanged at 4.96 percent.
