Seoul: Shares retreat from record high on heavy foreign sell-off

[SEOUL] South Korean shares ended lower on Monday, after touching a record high earlier in the session, as a steep sell-off by foreign and institutional investors outweighed a record buying spree from retail investors. The Korean won weakened, while the benchmark bond yield fell.

By 6.30am GMT, the benchmark Kospi fell 3.73 points or 0.12 per cent to 3,148.45. The index has risen 9.57 per cent so far this year and gained 20.4 per cent in the previous 30 trading sessions.

Institutional and foreigners were net sellers of 3.7 trillion won (S$4.48 billion) and 711.9 billion won worth of shares on the main board, respectively. Retail investors' daily net purchase of Kospi shares was at a record 4.48 trillion won.

Trading was volatile as profit-takers were just as fierce as those jumping in further into the rally, and more clarity will be seen from upcoming speeches by many from the US Federal Reserve at various meetings, said Seo Jung-hun, an analyst at Samsung Securities.

Shares of Samsung Electronics closed up 2.5 per cent, having surged more than 9 per cent earlier in the session, while shares of Hyundai Motor closed up 8.7 per cent.

The won was quoted at 1,097.3 per dollar on the onshore settlement platform, 0.68 per cent lower than its previous close at 1,089.8.

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In offshore trading, the won was quoted at 1,096.9 per dollar, down 0.4 per cent from the previous day, while in non-deliverable forward trading its one-month contract was quoted at 1,096.4.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 2.32 per cent.

The trading volume during the session in the Kospi index was 1,696.81 million shares. Of the total traded issues of 905, the number of advancing shares was 166.

The won has lost 1 per cent against the dollar so far this year.

The most liquid three-year Korean treasury bond yield fell by 0.5 basis point to 0.975 per cent, while the benchmark 10-year yield fell by 3.8 basis points to 1.695 per cent.

REUTERS