Korean stocks edged up 0.03 percent Monday, boosted by gains in tech firms on more positive signs of the U.S. economy, but the gain was limited due to lingering European debt woes, analysts said.
On the first trading session of the year, the benchmark KOSPI rose 0.63 points to 1,826.37.
Trading volume was moderate at 317.3 million shares worth 3.3 trillion won ($2.85 billion), with losers outnumbering gainers 334 to 487.
The local currency ended at 1,155.8 won to the greenback, down 4 won from Thursday’s close, as investors shunned risky assets amid lingering uncertainties, dealers said.
“Electronic firms pushed up the index on better-than-expected U.S. economy data,” said Oh On-su, a market analyst at Hyundai Securities Co. “But still there are European uncertainties that prevented the KOSPI from moving further upward.”
According to a report released last week, sales of U.S. houses surged to a one-and-a-half-year high in November, offering more signs of a tentative housing recovery.
“Foreigners continued their selling spree,” said Oh. “They’ve been trying to avoid risks on concerns over Italian debts scheduled to mature between February and April.”
Offshore investors dumped a net 102.1 billion won worth of Korean shares, while institutions snapped up 232 billion won worth of shares.
Global rating firms’ imminent moves to downgrade their sovereign ratings on some troubled countries also affected the market, he added.
Tech firms led the climb with Samsung Electronics, the world’s biggest memory chipmaker, rising 2.08 percent to 1,080,000 won, and its smaller rival Hynix Semiconductor soaring 6.83 percent to 23,450 won.
Shipbuilders were also bullish, with leading shipyard Hyundai Heavy Industries gaining 0.58 percent to 258,500 won.
However, financials, steelmakers and retailers finished in negative territory. Woori Finance Holdings lost 1.06 percent to 9,330 won and Shinhan Financial Group skidded 0.38 percent to finish at 39,600 won.
Top steelmaker POSCO shed 1.05 percent to 376,000 won and Hyundai Steel fell 1.46 percent to 94,300 won.
Retailers also lost ground due to a grim consumption outlook for 2012, with market leader Lotte Shopping falling 1.33 percent to 335,000 won and Shinsegae sliding 1.22 percent to end at 242,000 won.
Market watchers said the key stock index will likely begin to pick up in the second half of this year after bottoming out in the first half.
“The index will hit bottom in the first half but start to turn around later as Europe’s measures to deal with the crisis will start to come into effect in the second half,” said Oh.
Other experts also expected the KOSPI to pick up in the second half.
“There will be no big issues to push up or pull down the index in the first half. The KOSPI will hover around 1,800 points. When the impending Italian debt woes were removed, the market will gain momentum,” said analyst Kwak Joong-bo from Samsung Securities Co.
