SEOUL, Sept 25: Seoul shares edged down early on Tuesday as market participants chose to square positions ahead of a draft budget to be released from Spain on Thursday and end-month U.S. Economic data towards the end of the week.
The Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) was quoted at 1,998.94 points as of 0200 GMT, shedding some losses posted just after markets opened.
Trading was largely mixed towards midday, after nearly all sectors were losers across the main board in earlier trading as investors opted for the sidelines ahead of key events and data.
‘The narrow trading range is highly expected to remain throughout the week if there are no random surprise events,’ said Kim Hyun-jun, a derivatives analyst at IBK Securities in Seoul.
‘Efforts to boost growth in China or Europe may give the stock market momentum, but for now it’s better to keep hopes low.’
Tech heavyweight Samsung Electronics was flat after reports it would release a new smartphone on Wednesday offset news that its biggest competitor Apple Inc had sold more than 5 million iPhone 5 handsets since the smartphone was released last Friday.
Shares in Hotel Shilla fell 2.3 percent just a few days after hitting a record high last Friday as investors abandoned the shares on expectations of poor third quarter earnings.
Telecom company LG UPlus outperformed the bourse, rising 2.8 percent on domestic media reports of an increase in the number of people using smartphones that work on LG UPlus’s long-term evolution (LTE) networks.
Foreign investors were net sellers after 12 straight sessions of net buying, offloading 28.0 billion won ($24.99 million) worth of South Korean stocks.
The KOSPI 200 benchmark of core stocks was down 0.2 percent, while the junior KOSDAQ fell 1.3 percent. (agencies)
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