Fifth day of losses for local stocks while Wall Street witnesses gains

Stocks closed lower Tuesday to extend its losing streak to a fifth day, bucking overnight gains on Wall Street. The won sharply fell against the dollar. The benchmark Kospi dropped 6.73 points, or 0.26 percent, to 2,573.98.

Screens in Hana Bank's trading room in central Seoul show the Kospi closing at 2,573.98 points on Tuesday, down 0.26 percent, or 6.78 points, from the previous trading session. [NEWS1]

Stocks closed lower Tuesday to extend its losing streak to a fifth day, bucking overnight gains on Wall Street. The won sharply fell against the dollar.

The benchmark Kospi dropped 6.73 points, or 0.26 percent, to 2,573.98. Trading volume was moderate at 631.5 million shares worth 12.3 trillion won ($9.3 billion), with losers outnumbering winners 643 to 250.

Foreign investors and institutions dumped local shares worth 136.2 billion won and 442.1 billion won, respectively, while retail investors bought 556.1 billion won worth of shares.

All three major U.S. stock indexes finished higher Monday, snapping their worst weekly decline since March, on upbeat corporate earnings.

The decline can be attributed to market jitters over the U.S.' additional rate hikes and increased signs of a strain in the Chinese economy, Shinhan Securities analyst Choi Yu-joon said.

A Fed official said multiple rate hikes could be required as inflation is still significantly above the central bank's 2 percent target.

On Tuesday, Chinese economic data showed exports from the world's second-largest economy fell by a sharper-than-expected rate of 14.5 percent in July from a year earlier.

In Seoul, big-cap shares traded mixed.

Samsung Electronics dropped 1.31 percent to 67,600 won and SK hynix lost 2.71 percent to 118,600 won.

LG Chem remained flat at 615,000 won, while Samsung SDI inched down 0.49 percent to 614,000 won.

IT companies also fell, with Naver plunging 4.9 percent to 223,000 won and Kakao slipping 1.71 percent to 51,800 won.

Battery and steel stocks bounced back from recent losses.

LG Energy Solution jumped 2.14 percent to 525,000 won, Posco Holdings soared 6.42 percent to 597,000 won and Posco Future M grew 1.82 percent to 447,000 won.

Auto shares also gained ground, with Hyundai Motor climbing 0.21 percent to 188,400 won and Kia rose 0.9 percent to 78,300 won.

The local currency ended at 1,315.7 won against the dollar, up 9.5 won from the previous session's close.

Bond prices, which move inversely to yields, closed mixed. The yield on three-year government bonds lost 4 basis points to 3.647 percent, and the yield on the benchmark 10-year government bonds added 4.6 basis points to 4.089 percent.

BY SOHN DONG-JOO, YONHAP [sohn.dongjoo@joongang.co.kr]