Asian Economic News
South Korean Market Trades Weak; Tech, Bank Stocks Decline
11/23/2009 10:19 PM ET
(RTTNews) -
The South Korean stock market is trading weak on Tuesday despite strong cues from Wall Street overnight, with participants treading cautiously and pressing sales in technology, bank and shipping stocks.
The benchmark KOSPI index, which advanced to 1,627.1 in early trades, is currently down in negative territory at 1,608 with a loss of around 11 points or 0.68%.
Among tech stocks, heavyweight Samsung Electronics is trading lower by 1.6%, LG Electronics and Hynix Semiconductor are down by 2.3% and 2.5% respectively, while LG Display LCD is trading flat.
In the banking space, Woori Finance and Shinhan Financial are losing over 1.5% each, while Korea Exchange Bank and KB Financial are trading lower by 0.6% and 0.8% respectively.
Among shipping stocks, Hyundai Heavy Industries, Samsung Heavy Industries and Daewoo Shipbuilding are down by 0.6%-1%, while STX Pan Ocean is trading flat.
Automobile stocks Kia Motor, Hyundai Motor and Ssangyong Motor are trading notably higher. Steel and oil stocks are trading weak, while airlines and telecom stocks are exhibiting a mixed trend.
Shares of Daewoo Engineering & Construction Co. Ltd. are down sharply on reports that an Abu Dhabi fund-led consortium and a group including a U.S. builder were picked as preferred buyers of Daewoo in a deal estimated to fetch about US$2.6 billion.
Meanwhile, the Samsung Engineering stock is up over 2% on news of a 1.4 trillion won order from the United Arab Emirates.
Among other markets in the Asia-Pacific region, Australia, Hong Kong and Japan are trading weak, while Shanghai, Indonesia, New Zealand and Taiwan are up with modest gains. Singapore is trading flat. Markets across the region had closed mostly higher on Monday.
On Wall Street, stocks rallied on Monday on the back of encouraging home sales data and closed with strong gains despite some profit taking during the day. The Dow closed up 132.8 points or 1.3% at 10,451, the Nasdaq advanced by nearly 30 points or 1.4% to 2,176 and the S&P 500 moved up 14.9 points or 1.4% to 1,106.3.
Major European markets saw notable gains on Monday. While U.K.'s FTSE 100 index rose 1.7%, the French CAC 40 index and the German DAX index ended stronger by 2.3% and 2.4% respectively.
Crude oil finished modestly higher on Monday on a weaker dollar and concerns over political tensions in the Middle East. Light sweet crude for December delivery finished at US$77.56 per barrel, up 84 cents on the session.
by RTT Staff Writer
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