South Korean shares end marginally higher amid mixed earnings

Celltrion

25/10/2024 08:09

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      KOSPI rises, foreigners net sellers
    

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      Korean won weakens against US dollar
    

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      South Korea benchmark bond yield falls
    

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      For the midday report, please click  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N3M102R
    

  
       SEOUL, Oct 25 (Reuters) - Round-up of South Korean
financial markets:
    
    ** South Korean shares ended marginally higher on Friday, as
chipmaker SK Hynix and automaker Kia rose on upbeat earnings
outlook.
    ** The KOSPI  .KS11  closed up 2.27 points, or 0.09%, at
2,583.30.
    ** The benchmark shed 0.4% for the week, after falling 0.1%
last week.
    ** South Korea's finance minister said the downside risk to
the government's forecast of 2.6% economic growth for this year
had expanded, according to a report.
    ** "The stock market is being weighed by sharp losses in the
won," said Park Kwang-nam, an analyst at Mirae Asset Securities.
    ** The won was quoted at 1,388.7 per U.S. dollar on the
onshore settlement platform  KRW=KFTC , 0.46% lower than its
previous close at 1,382.3.
    ** SK Hynix  000660.KS  climbed 1.41%, building on its 1.12%
gain on Thursday on record quarterly profit, but rival Samsung
Electronics  005930.KS , which had flagged a weak third-quarter
earnings, fell 1.24% to its lowest since early January 2023.
    ** Kia  000270.KS  gained 1.98%, after raising its revenue
target for the year. Sister carmaker Hyundai  005380.KS , whose
third-quarter result missed market expectations, fell 1.31%.
    ** Samsung Biologics  207940.KS  climbed 1.92% on quarterly
profit growth, while biopharmaceutical peer Celltrion
 068270.KS  gained 0.27% on a decision to repurchase its shares.
    ** E-commerce firms slipped, with chat app Kakao  035720.KS 
down 2.54% and search engine Naver  035420.KS  losing 2.50%.
    ** Korea Zinc  010130.KS  closed 10.1% higher, after rising
as much as 29% to an all-time high, on the bet that an ongoing
takeover battle for a controlling stake in the world's biggest
zinc smelter would boost stock prices.
    ** Foreigners net sold shares worth 388.4 billion won
($279.6 million).
    ** The most liquid three-year Korean treasury bond yield
 KR3YT=RR  fell by 0.8 basis points to 2.884%, while the
benchmark 10-year yield  KR10YT=RR  fell by 1.5 basis points to
3.053%.

($1 = 1,389.0900 won)

 (Reporting by Jihoon Lee; Editing by Sumana Nandy)
 ((jihoon.lee@thomsonreuters.com;))