Seoul: Stocks end at seven-month low, tech heavyweights track Nasdaq losses

[SEOUL] South Korean shares ended at a nearly seven-month low on Tuesday, with worries over renewed Sino-US trade tensions, US debt default risks and inflation weighing on investor sentiment across Asia. The won ended flat, while the benchmark bond yield rose.

The Kospi ended down 57.01 points or 1.89 per cent at 2,962.17, its lowest closing since Mar 10. The index also hit an intraday low since Mar 9 earlier, dropping as much as 2.60 per cent.

Leading declines were technology heavyweights, tracking a sharp fall on Nasdaq overnight.

Chip giants Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix fell 1.37 per cent and 2.10 per cent, respectively, while Internet platform companies Naver and Kakao slumped 3.01 per cent and 4.72 per cent each.

Foreigners were net sellers of 623.5 billion won (S$712.7 million) worth of shares on the main board.

"Kospi fell below the 3,000-mark for the first time in over six months as macroeconomic risks such as US-China trade tensions and US debt ceiling issue weighed on sentiment ... Risk aversion also grew on higher inflationary pressure," said Park Kwang-nam, analyst at Mirae Asset Securities.

The won ended at 1,188.7 per dollar on the onshore settlement platform, unchanged from its previous close.

In offshore trading, the won was quoted at 1,188.8 per dollar, down 0.4 per cent from the previous day, while in non-deliverable forward trading its one-month contract was quoted at 1,189.1.

In money and debt markets, December futures on three-year treasury bonds was unchanged at 109.24.

The most liquid three-year Korean treasury bond yield rose by 1.6 basis points to 1.646 per cent, while the benchmark 10-year yield rose by 3.4 basis points to 2.284 per cent.

REUTERS