Stocks close lower again amid uncertain U.S. policy

Stocks closed slightly lower Thursday amid a mixed outlook on whether the United States will maintain its monetary tightening policy. The local currency rose against dollar.

Screens in Hana Bank's trading room in central Seoul show the Kospi closing at 2,403.60 points on Thursday, up 0.09 percent, or 2.09 points, from the previous trading session. [YONHAP]

Stocks closed slightly lower Thursday amid a mixed outlook on whether the United States will maintain its tightening monetary policy. The local currency rose against dollar.

The Kospi declined 2.09 points, or 0.09 percent, to close at 2,403.60.

The secondary Kosdaq fell 6.38 points, or 0.79 percent, to close at 801.02.

Trading volume was moderate at 446.01 million shares worth 8.96 trillion won ($6.64 billion), with losers outpacing gainers 583 to 295.

Foreigners and institutions dumped a net 272.1 billion won and 1.7 billion won worth of shares, respectively, while retail investors bought a net 315.9 billion won worth of shares.

Samsung Electronics fell 1.19 percent to 66,700 won, but SK hynix jumped 4.16 percent to 120,200 won on expectations the price of memory chips will go up in the fourth quarter.

Hyundai Motor was down 0.16 percent to 190,500 won, while Kia went up 1.95 percent to 83,500 won.

Hyundai Mobis lost 0.43 percent to 232,000 won.

Energy shares ended in positive terrain.

LG Energy Solution rose more than 2.5 percent to 467,500 won, and Samsung SDI added 0.93 percent to 489,000 won.

Sk Innovation slid 1.13 percent to 139,500 won.

Samsung Biologics shot up 4.63 percent to 723,000 won, and LG Chem jumped 3.29 percent to 502,000 won.

Celltrion slipped 3.02 percent to 131,800 won.

KB Financial Group fell 2.01 percent to 53,600 won, Shinhan Financial Group dropped 2.14 percent to 34,300 won and Hana Financial Group lost 1.21 percent to 40,900 won.

IT stocks lost ground.

Naver lost 0.94 percent to 189,400 won, and Kakao retreated 1.8 percent to 40,850 won.

Posco shares were also weak, with Posco Holdings flat at 511,000 won and Posco Future M, down 0.89 percent to 333,000 won.

The local currency ended at 1,350.50 won against the greenback, down 13 won from the previous session's close.

Bond prices, which move inversely to yields, closed higher. The yield on three-year treasury government bonds lost 2.0 basis points to 4.1 percent, and the return on the benchmark U.S. ten-year government bond fell 6.6 basis points to 4.7 percent.

BY KIM JI-YE, YONHAP [kim.jiye@joongang.co.kr]