Seoul: Stocks snap eight-day rally as vaccine euphoria begins to fade

[SEOUL] South Korean shares snapped an eight-session rally to end lower on Thursday, as the initial euphoria around a potential coronavirus vaccine started to fade, denting investor sentiment.

The Korean won and the benchmark bond yield also fell.

The benchmark Kospi fell 10.25 points or 0.41 per cent to close at 2,475.62, reversing a 1.35 per cent gain in the previous session.

"Recent rally added pressure on Kospi. Though the coronavirus vaccine is a good news, the time lag for commercialisation and production as well as surging infections in Europe and the United States is worrisome," said Daishin Securitis analyst Lee Kyoung-min.

Work to distribute the experimental Covid-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech is gearing up after the companies announced successful interim data on Monday, but it will not be coming to local pharmacies for the general public any time soon.

Foreigners were net buyers for a sixth straight session, purchasing 485.6 billion won (S$588 million) worth of share, the longest buying streak since mid-January. They have bagged a total 3.75 trillion won worth shares for the past six days.

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The won ended at 1,114.8 per US dollar on the onshore settlement platform, 0.43 per cent lower than its previous close at 1,110.0.

In offshore trading, the won was quoted at 1,114.7, down 0.2 per cent from the previous day, while in non-deliverable forward trading its one-month contract was quoted at 1,114.9.

In money and debt markets, December futures on three-year treasury bonds rose 0.10 point to 111.63, while the three-month Certificate of Deposit rate was quoted at 0.66 per cent in late afternoon trade.

The most liquid three-year Korean treasury bond yield fell by 2.3 basis points to 0.966 per cent, while the benchmark 10-year yield fell by 1.4 basis points to 1.644 per cent.

REUTERS