KOSPI falls, foreigners net buyers
*
Korean won weakens against dollar
*
South Korea benchmark bond yield rises
SEOUL, Feb 9 (Reuters) – Round-up of South Korean
financial markets:
** South Korean shares on Thursday tracked overnight
weakness on Wall Street, with chipmakers and online platform
providers reversing their previous session’s gains. The Korean
won weakened, while the benchmark bond yield rose.
** The benchmark KOSPI fell 9.60 points, or 0.39%,
to 2,474.04 by 0059 GMT.
** Chipmakers and online platform operators weakened in line
with U.S. tech peers. Technology giant Samsung Electronics
fell 0.79% and peer SK Hynix lost 1.90%.
** Search engine Naver slid 1.30%, while instant
messenger Kakao fell 1.45%, with its financial
service affiliates Kakaobank and Kakaopay
dropping 3.01% and 2.85%, respectively.
** Alphabet Inc lost $100 billion in market value
on Wednesday after its new chatbot shared inaccurate information
in a promotional video and a company event failed to dazzle.
** “Investors took profits from the gains in the last
session, with the upward momentum for the benchmark index losing
steam,” said Seo Jung-hun, an analyst at Samsung Securities.
** Of the total 929 issues traded, 288 shares advanced.
** Foreigners were net buyers of local stocks, by a narrow
margin of 8.8 billion won ($6.96 million).
** The won was quoted at 1,264.9 per dollar on the onshore
settlement platform, down 0.38%.
** In money and debt markets, March futures on three-year
treasury bonds fell 0.11 point to 104.58.
** The most liquid three-year Korean treasury bond yield
rose by 3.1 basis points to 3.374%, while the benchmark 10-year
yield rose by 1.7 basis points to 3.339%.
($1 = 1,264.8000 won)
(Reporting by Jihoon Lee; editing by Uttaresh.V)
