Seoul: Stocks posts biggest monthly drop since March 2020

[SEOUL] South Korean shares rose on Thursday but ended September 4 per cent lower in their biggest monthly decline since March 2020, as investors assessed the impact of skyrocketing energy costs on inflation and a broad sell-off in tech shares. The won weakened, while the benchmark bond yield rose.

The benchmark Kospi rose 8.55 points or 0.28 per cent to 3,068.82 as of 6.32am GMT.

A number of downside risks including the China Evergrande debt crisis, power crunch in China and debt issues in the United States clouded outlook for South Korean shares, increasing volatilities in the market, said Lee Kyoung-min, an analyst at Daishin Securities.

Among the heavyweights, technology giant Samsung Electronics traded flat and peer SK Hynix rose 3 per cent, while LG Chem rose 1.17 per cent and Naver rose 0.26 per cent.

Foreigners were net buyers of 34.8 billion won (S$40 million) worth of shares on the main board.

The won was quoted at 1,184.0 per dollar on the onshore settlement platform, 0.19 per cent lower than Wednesday at 1,181.8.

In offshore trading, the won was quoted at 1,184.1 per dollar, up 0.3 per cent, while in non-deliverable forward trading its one-month contract was quoted at 1,184.7.

The Kospi has risen 6.80 per cent so far this year, but lost 4.6 per cent in the previous 30 trading sessions.

The Kospi index's trading volume was 867.05 million shares, with 539 stocks rising of the total traded issues of 927.

The won has lost 8.3 per cent against the dollar so far this year.

In money and debt markets, December futures on three-year treasury bonds fell 0.01 point to 109.41.

The most liquid three-year Korean treasury bond yield fell by 1.5 basis points to 1.594 per cent, while the benchmark 10-year yield rose by 1.1 basis points to 2.237 per cent.

REUTERS