Shares continue downward spiral with fifth day of losses

Shares closed lower Tuesday for a fifth consecutive session as institutions continued their selling spree. The local currency slightly rose in value against the dollar.

Screens in Hana Bank's trading room in central Seoul show the Kospi closing at 2,561.24 points on Tuesday, down 0.26 percent, or 6.58 points, from the previous trading session. [NEWS1]

Shares closed lower Tuesday for a fifth consecutive session as institutions continued their selling spree. The local currency slightly rose in value against the dollar.

The Kospi shed 6.58 points, or 0.26 percent, to close at 2,561.24.

Trade volume was moderate at 782.4 million shares worth 8.76 trillion won ($6.66 billion), with gainers outpacing loser 573 to 288.

The Kospi stayed in positive terrain throughout the session following overnight gains on Wall Street but lost earlier gains after institutional investors turned to selling.

"The Kospi came close to breaching the 2,650 mark shortly after the market opened but returned most early gains as net buying by institutions shrank," said Lee Kyung-min, an analyst at Daeshin Securities.

"Samsung Electronics turned lower after reporting a fourth quarter earnings shock, which appears to have put additional downward pressure on the Kospi," the analyst added.

Samsung Electronics forecast its operating profit for the fourth quarter of 2023 to shrink 35 percent on-year to 2.8 trillion won, falling far short of a market estimate of 3.9 trillion won compiled by financial data firm Yonhap Infomax.

Institutions net sold 67.3 billion won worth of local shares, extending their selling spree to a fifth consecutive session. Individuals offloaded a net 10.4 billion won, while foreigners scooped a net 73.8 billion won.

Large caps closed mixed.

Samsung Electronics lost 2.35 percent to 74,700 won, while SK hynix added 1.03 percent to 137,400 won.

Naver gained 1.32 percent to 229,500 won and SK Telecom advanced 0.72 percent to 49,250 won.

Hyundai Motor slipped 0.05 percent to 185,600 won, while Kia climbed 0.22 percent to 89,100 won.

LG Energy Solution, which forecast its fourth quarter operating profits and total operation income for 2023 to have jumped, gained 0.6 percent to 417,500 won.

The local currency closed at 1,315.70 against the dollar, down 0.30 won from the previous session's close.

Bond prices, which move inversely to yields, closed higher. The yield on three-year government bonds fell 4.2 points to 3.256 percent, and the return on the benchmark U.S. 10-year government bonds dropped 1.4 points to 4.03 percent.

BY KIM JU-YEON, YONHAP [kim.juyeon2@joongang.co.kr]