South Korean stocks lost ground Thursday as conflicting economic signals caused institutions and retail investors to offload holdings. The local currency fell against the U.S. dollar.

Starting the day on the negative side, the benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index gave up more ground to end at 1,958.04, down 0.45 percent, or 8.83 points from Wednesday’s close. Trading volume was moderate at 333.78 million shares worth 4.73 trillion won ($4.25 billion), with decliners outpacing advancers 528 to 295.

Despite the net selling stance of institutions and retail investors, foreigners bought more shares than they sold off, which helped prop up the market to some extent.

Market watchers said that mixed economic signals were affecting investor sentiment. They pointed out that while market conditions in the eurozone and Japan are showing signs of stabilizing, growth forecasts in China remained worrisome. A lack of any additional economic stimulus plans from Seoul is further hurting confidence in the market.

“Even though foreign investors became net investors, they seem to be concentrating on a few items, such as Samsung SDS, and effectively ignoring the rest,” said Lim Dong-rak, a researcher at Hanyang Securities Co.

He said that investors have started to express concerns that the recently released Federal Reserve meeting minutes may be more “hawkish” than previously believed, which is causing some jitters.

Lim then said that recent movements in the exchange rate were actually fueling the confusion. The analysts said that while the strengthening of the dollar versus the Korean won could help exporters, this was offset by the weak yen and moves by Japanese firms to use the favorable exchange rate to cut prices. Such developments can hurt the price competitiveness of local companies abroad.

Tech giant Samsung Electronics, the flagship company of Samsung Group, lost 0.66 percent to 1,210,000 won per share, with global appliance manufacturer LG Electronics giving up 0.63 percent to 62,900 won. Memory chip giant SK hynix, on the other hand, edged up 0.21 percent to 47,250 won, with Samsung SDS surging 7.28 percent to 398,000 won per share.

The country’s No. 1 carmaker, Hyundai Motor, surrendered 2.62 percent to 167,000 won, while smaller affiliate Kia Motors ended the day also down 0.71 percent to 56,000 won.

Besides these companies, top steelmaker POSCO fell 0.84 percent to 295,500 won, while LG Chem, one of the largest producers of rechargeable batteries, advanced 0.49 percent to 204,000 won.

The local currency ended at 1,115.1 won to the U.S. dollar, down 8.8 won from the previous session. (Yonhap)