South Korea: Stocks slip amid increasing volatility

[SEOUL] South Korea's KOSPI index fell after a choppy session on Thursday, with increasing volatility in relation to the expiry of the front-end KOSPI futures and options contracts, while chip giants were dragged down by murky industry outlook.

The Seoul stock market's main KOSPI closed down 6.55 points or 0.31 per cent at 2,102.20.

Without fresh factors to move markets, foreigners' position rebalancing on Thursday in relation to the expiry of the front-end KOSPI futures and options contracts prompted their net selling, said Lee Young-gon, an analyst at Hana Financial Investment.

Foreigners were net sellers of US$139.98 million worth of shares on the main board.

The KOSPI has risen 3 per cent so far this year, but lost 3.2 per cent in the previous 30 trading sessions.

The trading volume during the session on the KOSPI index was 539.94 million shares and, of the total traded issues of 891, the number of advancing shares was 527.

REUTERS