Seoul: Shares close little changed amid coronavirus fears

[SEOUL] South Korean shares closed little changed on Monday after last week's sharp gains, as fears of a deeper economic crisis due to the fast-spreading coronavirus outbreak countered stimulus measures to ease the financial pain.

The Seoul stock market's main KOSPI closed down 0.61 points, or 0.04 per cent, at 1,717.12. Last week, the index gained 9.7 per cent.

South Korea's president said the government would provide emergency cash payments to all households except the top 30 per cent by income and draw up a second supplementary budget to ease the economic impact of the outbreak.

The central bank said on Sunday it would draw on its new currency swap with the U.S. Federal Reserve to provide US$12 billion of US dollar funding to local banks via auctions on Tuesday.

Group of 20 trade ministers will hold an emergency video conference on Monday to discuss cooperation on supply chains.

Large caps fell in South Korea while small caps gained, a phenomenon that demonstrates increased volatility due to the uncertainties, said Seo Sang-young, an analyst at Kiwoom Investment & Securities.

The KOSPI has fallen 21.87 per cent so far this year and lost 23.4 per cent in the previous 30 trading sessions.

The trading volume during the session in the KOSPI index was 753.00 million shares. Of the total traded issues of 900, the number of advancing shares was 602.

REUTERS