Investor sentiment in South Korea took a hit on Thursday as the nation\u2019s shares dipped by more than 1%, driven by apprehensions surrounding the future trajectory of U.S. interest rates ahead of the upcoming release of inflation data. The local currency also faced downward pressure against the U.S. dollar.<\/p>\n
The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) experienced a decline of 32.91 points, marking a 1.2% drop, to conclude at 2,712.14.<\/p>\n
Trading activity remained moderate, with a volume of 413 million shares valued at 10.9 trillion won (approximately U.S.$7.95 billion). Losers outnumbered gainers significantly, with 531 stocks ending in the red against 355 in the green.<\/p>\n
Foreign investors were noted to have offloaded a net 354 billion won worth of local shares, putting an end to their seven-day streak of buying. Meanwhile, retail investors countered this trend by purchasing a net 415 billion won, whereas institutions sold a net 75.9 billion won.<\/p>\n
The concerns were exacerbated by remarks from Susan Collins, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, who suggested that achieving the target inflation of 2% might take longer than previously anticipated.<\/p>\n
Lee Jae-won, an analyst from Shinhan Securities, commented on the impact of Collins\u2019 statements, stating, \u201cSusan Collins\u2019 hawkish comments raised concerns about prolonged monetary tightening, dampening investors\u2019 appetite for risky assets.\u201d<\/p>\n
The decline in the stock market was further attributed to the expiration of options contracts.<\/p>\n
Key players in the market, including tech giants Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, experienced declines of 1.97% and 1.46%, respectively. Notably, South Korea\u2019s leading online portal operator Naver saw a 1.36% drop amid pressure from Japan following a data leakage incident last year.<\/p>\n
Automobile manufacturers also witnessed significant decreases, with Hyundai Motors and Kia losing 2.07% and 3.71%, respectively.<\/p>\n
However, energy firms bucked the trend, with Korea Electric Power Corp. rising by 1.4% and Korea Gas advancing by 1.27%.<\/p>\n
In the foreign exchange market, the local currency closed at 1,370.1 won against the U.S. dollar, down 8.6 won from the previous session\u2019s close. Bond prices saw a decline as yields rose, with the yield on three-year Treasurys gaining 1.4 basis points to 3.453%, and the return on the benchmark five-year government bonds increasing by 1.7 basis points to 3.490%.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
South Korean shares plunged over 1%, driven by concerns over future U.S. interest rates. Foreign investors sold a net 354 billion won worth of shares, halting a seven-day buying streak, while retail investors bought a net 415 billion won.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":367,"featured_media":16341,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[986,10277,603,10278],"class_list":["post-16340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-south-korea","tag-seoul","tag-shinhan-securities","tag-south-korea","tag-susan-collins"],"reading_time":"2 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/367"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16340"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16340\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}