An electronic board showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index at a dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul on Tuesday. (Yonhap)

South Korean shares closed lower Tuesday to extend their losing streak to a third day, taking a cue from overnight losses on Wall Street. The local currency fell against the US dollar.

The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (Kospi) shed 8.76 points, or 0.32 percent, to close at 2,689.25.

Trade volume was light at 259.7 million shares worth 7.95 trillion won ($5.97 billion). Winners, however, outnumbered losers 434 to 423.

Institutions bought a net 36.9 billion won worth of shares, while individuals and foreign investors combined offloaded a net 40.9 billion won.

Overnight, major US indexes closed mixed as the Dow Jones Industrial Average increased 0.16 percent, while the S&P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq composite fell 0.32 percent and 0.85 percent, respectively.

Artificial intelligence chip giant Nvidia slid 2.25 percent ahead of its second-quarter earnings release due later this week, and other tech firms, including Micron and AMD, also lost ground.

Han Ji-young, an analyst at Kiwoom Securities, said, "While the US stock market in general has shown an improvement in investor confidence following the US Fed Chair Jerome Powell's Jackson Hole meeting speech, concerns over Nvidia's earnings led to a correction, particularly among semiconductor stocks."

In Seoul, tech behemoth Samsung Electronics slipped 0.39 percent to 75,800 won and its chipmaking rival SK hynix decreased 2.56 percent to 175,000 won.

Top automaker Hyundai Motor lost 0.8 percent to close at 247,500 won and its smaller affiliate Kia dropped 0.97 percent to 101,800 won.

Battery shares closed mixed, with industry leader LG Energy Solution down 0.4 percent to 376,500 won while its smaller rival Samsung SDI jumped 1.81 percent to 338,000 won.

Bio giant Samsung Biologics added 1.14 percent to finish at 973,000 won, while Celltrion slipped 2.2 percent to close at 200,500 won.

The local currency was trading at 1,331 won against the dollar as of 3:30 p.m., down 4.2 won from the previous session. (Yonhap)