Kospi staunches losses but Samsung slides below 49,000 won

Kospi gained 1.78 points, or 0.07 percent, to end at 2,418.86 to rebound from one-year low.

A screen in Hana Bank's trading room in central Seoul shows the Kospi closing on Thursday. [YONHAP]

Shares closed slightly higher Thursday to end a four-day losing streak, but Samsung Electronics continued to slide on a foreign sell-off.

The benchmark Kospi gained 1.78 points, or 0.07 percent, to end at 2,418.86, rebounding from a one-year low the previous session. The Kosdaq fell 8.09 points, or 1.17 percent, to close at 681.56.

The Kospi lost ground for four consecutive days until Wednesday amid heightened uncertainties following Donald Trump's victory in the U.S. presidential election.

The Korean financial market opened an hour later than usual at 10 a.m. and closed at 4:30 p.m. due to the national college entrance exam.

Trading volume was heavy at 628.4 million shares worth 12.6 trillion won ($9 billion), with foreigners and retail investors unloading a combined 338.64 billion won worth of local shares to offset institutional investors' purchase of 276 billion won.

Tech giant Samsung Electronics decreased 1.38 percent to 49,900 won, falling below the 50,000 won mark for the first time since June 2020 as foreigners dumped the stock for the 12th consecutive session.

SK hynix also slid 5.41 percent to 173,000 won, tracking an overnight loss for semiconductor shares on Wall Street.

LG Energy Solution rose 2.43 percent to 422,000 won and Samsung SDI climbed 3.52 percent to 264,500 won.

Posco Holdings jumped 7.27 percent to 310,000 won and HD Hyundai Heavy soared 9.41 percent to 217,500 won.

Korea Zinc also jumped 4.49 percent to 1.03 million won.

The local currency was trading at 1,405.1 won against the greenback as of 3:30 p.m., down 1.5 won from the previous session, as financial authorities vowed to actively respond to excessive foreign exchange volatility.

The Korean won has hovered over the psychological threshold of 1,400 won for days.

Bond prices, which move inversely to yields, closed mixed. The yield on three-year government bonds fell 1.3 basis points to 2.93 percent, and the return on the benchmark 10-year U.S. government bonds climbed 3.6 basis point to 4.464 percent.

BY CHO YONG-JUN [cho.yongjun1@joongang.co.kr]